“My father was a Japanese prisoner of war, a survivor of the Thai-Burma...” — Richard Flanagan Quote

“My father was a Japanese prisoner of war, a survivor of the Thai-Burma Death Railway, built by a quarter of a million slave labourers in 1943. Between 100,000 and 200,000 died.”

“John Howard, willing to apologise to home owners for rising interest rates, would not say sorry to Aborigines. He refused to condone what he referred to as 'a black armband version' of history, preferring a jingoistic nationalism.”

“After writing a novel, what is there to say? If a novelist could say it in a maxim, they wouldn't need 120,000 words, several years and sundry characters, plots and subplots, and so on. I'd much rather listen always.”

“There were business challenges, a lot of imitators sprung up, but we built a product that customers love.”

“I developed an interesting skill set in that I was able to create a network and create experiences and environment - I built this decadent playground for men. It might have been successful, but it wasn't important. It didn't have any true meaning.”

“There is a tragic kind of joke. You really can't keep a man down - good but often otherwise - because history's mechanics are built to keep him climbing toward the top. Somehow, Icarus gets to be reborn as Iron Man.”