He was one of those men who, even in the years of peace, would have advised his congregation that while God may well be honored by the inflexibility of the pious, he might also be honored by the flexibility of the sensible.

Personal finances are like people’s personal health, crucial and tragic to the sufferer but tedious to the listener.

Thomas was my true name but everyone knew me as Mick, except my mother, who knew me as definitely Michael.

Though, as he was torn into a pink upper air, she was a good craft to ride in, for her belly was firm and her breasts enabled a flying man good hold and emotions of heady safety. . . . Steering her peasant tits he bounded off stars.

And I think my sexuality was heavily repressed by the church, by the, you know, the design of the mortal sins.

In a way Australia is like Catholicism. The company is sometimes questionable and the landscape is grotesque. But you always come back.

I must apologise because I know all writers have memories of being on the outer because it's the children on the side of the playground who become the dangerous writers.