My ancestors came from Co Roscommon, transported to Van Diemen's Land for stealing food. Richard Flanagan ancestordiemenfood Change image and share on social
If you choose to take your compass from power, in the end you find only despair. But if you look around the world you can see and touch - the everyday world that is too easily dismissed as everyday - you see largeness, generosity, hope, change for the better. It's always small, but it's real. Richard Flanagan changechoosecompass share on social
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. Richard Flanagan anorexicassemblybeautiful share on social
Logging is an industry driven solely by greed. It prospers with government support and subsidies, and it is accelerating its rate of destruction, so that Tasmania is now the largest hardwood chip exporter in the world. Richard Flanagan acceleratechipdestruction share on social
In Tasmania, an island the size of Ireland whose primeval forests astonished 19th-century Europeans, an incomprehensible ecological tragedy is being played out. Richard Flanagan 19thastonishcentury Change image and share on social
I read incessantly, searching for the things that might move me. Richard Flanagan incessantlymoveread Change image and share on social
Perhaps the virtue of coming from a place like Tasmania is that you had the great gift of knowing that you were not the centre of things, yet life was no less where you were. Richard Flanagan centrecomegift Change image and share on social
I am the happiest writing and being with the people I love. Richard Flanagan happylovepeople Change image and share on social
As a novelist, you have to be free. Books can't be an act of filial duty. Richard Flanagan actbookduty Change image and share on social
It may be that the carbon tax is the final chapter in the strange death of Labor Australia. Richard Flanagan australiacarbonchapter Change image and share on social