Richard Flanagan

War stories deal in death. War illuminates love, while love is the greatest expression of hope, without which any story rings untrue to life. And to deny hope in a story about such darkness is to create false art.

I hate the way my life has been inexplicably overwhelmed by questionnaires. Life is so much stranger and so much more beautiful than the lists that reduce it to an anorexic assembly of tics and obsessions.

I remember hating New Kids on the Block from the sidelines because all of the girls loved them. They would just fawn over them. 'Oh my gosh, Joey I love you!' When I was younger, I really couldn't stand them.