Hal Porter

The Australian form of self-respect, however rough-and-ready, heart-of-gold, come-and-take-pot-luck-with-us, and matily extrovert it is, essentially, genteel, ingrowing, self-pitying, vanilla-ice-cream hearted, its central…

— Hal Porter

Now, I can smile at the stock quality of these friends, these uniforms. these looking-glasses, these sharers. Each is a character lifted…

— Hal Porter

I cannot consider fighting in competitive Manly Fun any more than I can consider pitting my running, swimming or climbing body against…

— Hal Porter

The heat is searing and superb. The paddocks surrounding the town are bleached blond. The distant ring-barked gums, mile after mile, wriggle…

— Hal Porter

This silent cry is of ecstasy for what has been done, and of despair at being forestalled, and being thus forewarned, that…

— Hal Porter

The unwritten rules of behaviour are infinite in number, finely shaded, and subtle to the last fraction of a degree. They are…

— Hal Porter

While still sixteen I am put in charge of a class of forty children who are two, three or four years younger…

— Hal Porter

I immediately cotton on to the fact that intelligence thus lightly used, and one-upmanshipishly displayed, is a birthmark giving me a two-coloured…

— Hal Porter

How ruthless and vile and hard and right the young are.

— Hal Porter

Indeed, so deep is my pleasure in the work of the garden that, if there be a dimension after death in which…

— Hal Porter

Next, suddenly, lightning suddenly, while I am still a child, a branch is lopped from my being, and a portion of my…

— Hal Porter