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 bei….

For a while Australians were desperately trying to be cosmopolitan. I think it is a pointless exercise. Australian novels are those rooted in Austral….

In fiction 'issues' are accidental, sometimes incidental. The place and the people it creates are paramount..

We rise to a challenge and set a course. We take a decision. You put your mind to something. Just deciding to do it gets you halfway there. Daring to….

For every moment the sea is peace and relief, there is another when it shivers and stirs to become chaos. It's just as ready to claim as it is to off….

Different tenses and perspectives offer you different things. It helps to distinguish the world that they are in..

The beachcomber goes looking for trouble, everything he finds is a sign of trouble. The writer is the same; without trouble he has nothing to work wi….

If we love the sea as much as we claim to we'll do everything we possibly can to keep it healthy. Otherwise we might as well take up golf..

The blank page doesn't bother me. It's the voice in my head (not always my own) that gives me the yips. It's worse when I'm not making stuff up..

It's terrifying to think you can remember things you shouldn't possibly be able to. It's like that childhood fear of having your soul slip from your ….

People do change - individuals, families, nations - and the pace of transformation need not be geological..

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 th….

Surfing is sensual. It's a real-time engagement with the forces of nature, which happen to be echoes of the past (which after all, is all a wave real….

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

I just sit here and tell the story as though I can't help it. There's always something in the day that reminds me, that sets me off all hot and guilt….

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

The health of our seas determines the future of humanity..

The ocean is a supreme metaphor for change. I expect the unexpected but am never fully prepared..

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

Surviving is the strongest memory I have; the sense of having walked on water..

When you're surfing you're not thinking about where you parked the car or what you're going to do when you grow up or what you're going to buy when y….