I don't believe there's anything cosmic or divine or morally superior about whales and dolphins or sharks or trees, but I do think that everything that lives is holy and somehow integrated; and on cloudy days I suspect that these extraordinary phenomena, and the hundreds of tiny, modest versions no one hears about, are an ocean, an earth, a Creator, something shaking us by the collar, demanding our attention, our fear, our vigilance, our respect, our help.

Humour's the pay-off for all that existential horror.

It's impossible to imagine what Australia would be like without surfing.

It's dark already and I'm out here again, talking, telling the story to the quiet night.

The desert is a spiritual place, we vaguely understand, and the sea the mere playground of our hedonism.

Whatever you believe, you need faith to get through the day.

It's the pointless things that give your life meaning. Friendship, compassion, art, love. All of them pointless. But they're what keeps life from being meaningless.