Popular quotes about Australia! Wisdom and inspiration are here!
The third season of the Leftovers came along and Damon Lindelof sent me the script to Episode 3, and I called him up and thanked him for one of the greatest gifts I've been given. I had that script for almost two months, in the mountains in Idaho, before I even got on a plane and flew to Australia and went to the outback. He also told me to learn about the indigenous people in Australia and learn how to play a didgeridoo. It was just great. It was probably, in many ways, the best acting experience I've ever had.
Scott GlennI believe that the mistakes that we made in Europe in the last decades by allowing so much mass immigration from Islamic countries is a warning that if Australia is not vigilant enough to preserve the freedom, what has happened here might happen to Australia in the next decades as well.
Geert WildersI had been reading a lot about pioneers in Australia and the colonization of Australia, and pioneers in Virginia and the early settlers in the United States, and I was fascinated by those communities and how they grew, how their politics developed, and the actual suffering of those people and the tribulations they went through.
Ben RichardsI was born in North London, migrated to Australia when I was four. So when I first came to Australia people saw me as a little English boy. Over the years that feeling of being a little English boy diminished and I felt much more Australian.
Michael MarmotI was born in Australia and grew up in the foreign services. I had this kind of trans-Pacific life. I think I was always sort of oriented towards here's Australia and here's America and here's the Pacific.
Jane AlisonFor a while Australians were desperately trying to be cosmopolitan. I think it is a pointless exercise. Australian novels are those rooted in Australia, with Australian landscapes and colours. My work has always had bits of Western Australia in it. It is always here. The world comes to us.
Tim WintonWhen 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.
Clive JamesAustralia has always encouraged the little bloke to have a go, the Aussie battler to get up.
Andrew ForrestBack in Australia, I did foster care for sick cats for years, and I was always most successful with the animals when I was given two - a brother and sister.
Jason GannI don't have a problem with nudity. I never have. I was born naked. I'd like to buried naked. It's a way of life in Australia.
Elle MacphersonOpera Australia has a mix - it produces new work, it produces from the classical repertoire and, particularly in more recent years, it's done those blockbuster musicals which are very lucrative for it and reach an audience that classic opera or a new opera perhaps wouldn't reach, like South Pacific for example.
George BrandisIf you want to speak about different ethnicities and diversity, rap and hip-hop are all over the planet. Every country, from Turkey to Australia, now has tons of hip-hop artists. The music and artistry have moved way faster than the corporatization of the music. You do need organization and opportunity for these artists to express themselves, and I don't think it has to come from a corporate co-signing.
Chuck DI had a good personal relationship with Lee Kuan Yew and I used him, in the sense, that he... He made a statement in 1980, and he said in that statement that, "If Australia keeps going the way it is, it will finish up the poor, white trash of Asia." And he was right, because we were just going backwards.
Bob HawkeAnother time, we had three days off in Australia, so we went out of our way to fly to Ayres Rock.
Phil Collins2009 was a tough year, but Australia rose to the challenge of the global financial crisis. It shows what can be done when we all join together and work together, governments of all persuasions state, territory and local; businesses large and small; unions and local communities right across the nation.
Kevin RuddOur culture is becoming more hostile to the gospel. This trend may be more established in Australia than in the USA, but it's now certainly the case that the postmodern mindset is dominant, particularly in the media. Therefore, when we start speaking in terms of certainties, we sound scary to other people.
Mark DeverIn America, if you want to make it as a golfer, you go to college on a scholarship. In Australia, you go to the airport with a plane ticket. The competition just isn't there.
Stuart ApplebyAs nations we should also commit afresh to righting past wrongs. In Australia we began this recently with the first Australians - the oldest continuing culture in human history. On behalf of the Australian Parliament, this year I offered an apology to indigenous Australians for the wrongs they had suffered in the past.
Kevin RuddAnyone who thinks it's smart to cut immigration is sentencing Australia to poverty.
Malcolm TurnbullJesus knew that there was a place for everything and itโs not necessarily everyoneโs place to come to Australia.
Tony AbbottI don't despair about the cultural scene in Australia because there isn't one to despair about.
Robert HelpmannAustralia is one of the few places that I can think of where the cities, at least those I've been to, seem to have strikingly different characters and visual textures. To an American like me, there's basically Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane and the rest is all bush.
Michael BierutI assume the same problem exists in Australia as in America of back-biting and jealousy and parochialism among disciplines - there are the scientists, and there are the humanities people, and there are chemists and the physicists and everybody snipes at everybody else and inter-disciplinary communication is rare. But it's very precious and necessary.
Richard LewontinThe beauty of the air, from the air... You haven't seen Australia unless you see it from the air. The coastline, the colours of the inland. The claypans, the forests. It's just all so beautiful. You'd never see that from the road. People climb mountains to see these things. You see that every time you take off.
Nancy Bird WaltonThe anti-globalization movement is one of the biggest globalized events of the contemporary world, people coming from everywhere, ยAustralia, Indonesia, Britain, India, Poland, Germany, South Africaยto demonstrate in Seattle or Quebec. What could be more global than that?
Amartya SenWe must respect each other's right to choose a collective destiny, and the opportunity to develop the legal and political rights for Indigenous and non-Indigenous peoples so that we may enjoy the right to maintain our culture, our heritage and our land, as a united Australia.
Jackie HugginsWhen most objects are truly functional, this technological age, which is just beginning, will be truly civilised. When all objects in this country are truly functional, Australia will be as beautiful in its own way as classical Greece.
Robin BoydAs a four-year-old, my mother told me I was climbing the fence, jumping off and calling myself an 'eppyplane'... I bought books on aeroplanes, I followed everything in the newspapers about aeroplanes. Amy Johnson flew to Australia in 1930 - why couldn't I do something like that?
Nancy Bird WaltonIn Australia, they set up a special fund to kick films off. It was quite an enlightened sort of move. You could go to this government bureau with scripts and and get finance for films.
Bruce BeresfordI have been disappointed in all my expectations of Australia, except as to its wickedness; for it is far more wicked than I have conceived it possible for any place to be, or than it is possible for me to describe to you in England.
Henry ParkesCricket. Come summer holidays here in Australia not a whole lot else seems to matter. It's good stuff... Some would even go as far as to say, marvellous.
Richie BenaudMost of the well-developed world - Australia, Western Europe - they develop their resources base, they inventory it, they develop it, and they view it as a good source of jobs and revenue. We are a country that for too long has taken affordable energy for granted.
John S. WatsonMy kids started school, so having a strong base in Melbourne has been a key priority. I'm not daunted by the travel. People say, 'It's so far to Australia,' and I say, 'You get on the plane, you eat well, you sleep, you wake up - and you're there.'
Geoffrey RushI'm going to introduce BookShots, which are these under-150-page books that I'm launching, and they're under $5. They just launched in Australia. I already had a ton of content, but now add 50 books a year of content.
James PattersonGoing home to Australia, it's good to get home, but it's kind of bad too because you get used to that way of life again and you have to come back to America.
Andrew BogutIt feels like it's just starting in America and the UK. It's great to have a loyal fanbase in Australia and New Zealand. People in America say how polished our band are, but that didn't happen overnight; that came from doing all this touring back home.
KimbraMy ideal registration system would be an opt-out one, where every single person is registered once they turn 18. In Australia, Iโm told, everyone is registered to vote and you pay a fine if you donโt vote.
Sharon SalzbergSouth Australia was the first community to give the secret ballot for political elections.
Catherine Helen SpenceI've been to Australia several times, and I just like the earthiness; it's part of the culture. That's a really good vibe to be around.
Erin HeathertonWe were a Western civilisation, an English speaking civilisation, both NZ and Australia, and we had all these influences coming from both Great Britain and America to us; sending us their culture in the shape and form of movies and television.
Richard O'BrienOlivia Newton-John - Australia's gift to insomniacs. It's nothing but the blonde singing the bland.
Minnie RipertonI hope I have repaid Australia for the humanity it showed me, as it has shown to so many others over the years.
John YuI went to England in the '70s, and I was in my early 20s. There was still a residue of that era of being an underclass or colonial. I assume it must have been a more aggressive and prominent attitude 40 years before that, because Australia internationally wasn't regarded as having much cultural value. We were a country full of sheep and convicts.
Geoffrey Rush