2030 Quotes by Australian authors

Australian Flag

Australian voices speak in a dry, flinty music: wry understatement cut with sudden tenderness. These quotes carry the heat-haze of distance, the grit of red earth, and the salt from a restless coast. They honor Country and kin, memory and survival, while skewering pomposity with a larrikin grin. Expect stories that bend toward resilience, fairness, and frank talk, whether whispered under gum trees or tossed across a crowded tram. The tone is spare, playful, and fierce, with humor used as both shield and compass.

See the complete list of authors from Australia

"It is only when they go wrong that machines remind you how powerful they are"

Clive James, Author

Small: Clive James

"You're only young once, but you can be immature forever"

Germaine Greer, Activist

Small: Germaine Greer

"'Programming' is a four-letter word"

Craig Bruce, Writer

Small: Craig Bruce

"You can't fatten the pig on market day"

John Howard, Statesman

"The man who rows the boat seldom has time to rock it"

Bill Copeland, Athlete

"The greater the artist, the greater the doubt. Perfect confidence is granted to the less talented as a consolation prize"

Robert Hughes, Critic

"Tomorrow doesn't exist, yesterday is gone. The more I remind myself of that, the stronger I feel"

Liam Hemsworth, Actor

Small: Liam Hemsworth

"Everyone has a right to a university degree in America, even if it's in Hamburger Technology"

Clive James, Author

Small: Clive James

"Any man who has $10,000 left when he dies is a failure"

Errol Flynn, Actor

"It's hardware that makes a machine fast. It's software that makes a fast machine slow"

Craig Bruce, Writer

Small: Craig Bruce

"LIfe has got all those twists and turns. You've got to hold on tight and off you go"

Nicole Kidman, Actress

"One small cat changes coming home to an empty house to coming home"

Pam Brown, Poet

Small: Pam Brown

"I think my parents see my life now as very conservative"

Radha Mitchell, Actress

"The squeaky wheel doesn't always get greased; it often gets replaced"

John Peers

"Freedom is fragile and must be protected. To sacrifice it, even as a temporary measure, is to betray it"

Germaine Greer, Activist

Small: Germaine Greer

"The compelled mother loves her child as the caged bird sings. The song does not justify the cage nor the love the enforcement"

Germaine Greer, Activist

Small: Germaine Greer

"Kittens are wide-eyed, soft and sweet. With needles in their jaws and feet"

Pam Brown, Poet

Small: Pam Brown

"All the arguments to prove man's superiority cannot shatter this hard fact: in suffering the animals are our equals"

Peter Singer, Philosopher

"Creating a nation requires the will of the people!"

Edmund Barton, Politician

"Conscience is our magnetic compass; reason our chart"

Joseph Cook, Politician

"The work of a psychotherapist involves being empathic and insightful with one's patients without getting too lost in their painful stories to be helpful"

Pamela Stephenson, Actress

"God bless America. God save the Queen. God defend New Zealand and thank Christ for Australia"

Russell Crowe, Actor

"You see someone on the street wearing an outfit and then it's on the cover of a magazine. I love. But, you know, I'm Australian, so I'm not too flashy or glitzy"

Rose Byrne, Actress

"We never considered ourselves to be a good band or anything, we just thought we were playing for fun and we wanted to play music that sounded like Black Sabbath or Soundgarden or the music we were into at that time"

Daniel Johns, Musician

"Whoever called snooker 'chess with balls' was rude, but right"

Clive James, Author

Small: Clive James

"You usually have to wait for that which is worth waiting for"

Craig Bruce, Writer

Small: Craig Bruce

"Don't judge a book by its thickness either"

Craig Bruce, Writer

Small: Craig Bruce

"Mel's Diner in L.A. - they are my favorite hamburgers. I could eat there every day. They are ridiculous"

Liam Hemsworth, Actor

Small: Liam Hemsworth

"For every person who has ever lived there has come, at last, a spring he will never see. Glory then in the springs that are yours"

Pam Brown, Poet

Small: Pam Brown

"The first crocodile I ever caught was at nine years of age, and it was a rescue"

Steve Irwin, Scientist

"At the descriptive level, certainly, you would expect different cultures to develop different sorts of ethics and obviously they have; that doesn't mean that you can't think of overarching ethical principles you would want people to follow in all kinds of places"

Peter Singer, Philosopher

"It was immediately apparent that it was full of tricky ingredients to balance. In fact, I found it very intriguing. What held me back from saying yes to the producer was that I wasn't sure who could play Truman"

Peter Weir, Director

"I don't smoke and I don't drink alcohol"

Radha Mitchell, Actress

"If it is the duty of the State to educate, it is the duty of the State also to bear the burden of education, namely, the taxation out of which education is provided"

Edmund Barton, Politician

"Hollywood is horrible... it's beyond satire"

Yahoo Serious, Director

"Of all my wife's relations I like myself the best"

Joseph Cook, Politician

"I owe a lot to my parents, especially by mother and my father"

Greg Norman, Athlete

Small: Greg Norman

"A collection of huts surrounded by a barbed wire fence, and in the huts lived 500 of the original inhabitants of our area. And so it went with many country towns around Australia"

Phillip Noyce, Director

"If you know you are going to fail, then fail gloriously"

Cate Blanchett, Actress

"Beer makes you feel the way you ought to feel without beer"

Henry Lawson, Writer

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