When I was young I never believed that Australia was anything else except blessed. I thought it was a little dull when I was young, but that was 'cause I was a snob.

Jimmy Connors likes the ball to come at him in a straight line, so that he can hit it back in another straight line. When it comes to him in a curve, he uses up half of his energy straightening it up again.

Writing is a performance art for me. They're very closely aligned, writing and performing. But I'm a writer, not a performer.

They had a... dog called Bluey. A know psychopath, Bluey would attack himself if nothing else was available.

It is almost better to be an impulse shirt-buyer than an impulse shoe-buyer. I have worn shirts that made people think I was a retired Mafia hit-man or a Yugoslavian sports convener from Split, but I have worn shoes that made people think I was insane.

John McEnroe has hair like badly turned broccoli.

One way or another, all the poets of the thirties and forties reacted to Auden, either by rejecting him or trying to absorb him.