Jock Serong > Quotes

“Rather than taking this as an indication that perceptive people can see my faults, I take it as a warning to avoid perceptive people at all costs.”
― Jock Serong, The Rules of Backyard Cricket

“Sometimes I’m amazed by my ability to open my mouth and just hear my own unedited thoughts fall out.”
― Jock Serong, The Rules of Backyard Cricket

“The outfield's billiard green: no bare patches, no flowers. The things that are painted white-the sightscreen, the pickets around the boundary-are so white it hurts. The hoses and the boundary line are white. The entire playing surface is perfectly flat and level. And in the middle of the ground, across that wide carpet of perfect grass, the holy of holies.
A turf wicket.”
― Jock Serong, The Rules of Backyard Cricket

“One such man, an islander named Drew, strode into a Launceston rooming house looking—and here Srinivas suddenly became awkward—for the services of a good woman. I nearly laughed: from all I’d heard, no one would seek a good woman in Launceston.”
― Jock Serong, The Burning Island

“As he gathers speed, I have a brief second to regret that someone else hasn’t borne the brunt of his impatience. He’s six foot four standing still. I know this because I’ve looked up into his eyes at social functions, and I’m six foot. In his delivery stride, leaping off that left foot and airborne as he passes the umpire, he’s at least seven foot two. And as that right arm whips over his ear, the clutched ball streaking like sunlight through a thrown glass of claret, I swear that giant hand is topping out at, I don’t know, eleven, twelve feet in the air. The problem with such a high release is not so much the angle it comes down from, but the resultant angle at which it rears up off the turf. Pg122”
― Jock Serong, The Rules of Backyard Cricket

“As we drive away I know this tough little man has read me clearly. Rather than taking this as an indication that perceptive people can see my faults, I take it as a warning to avoid perceptive people at all costs.”
― Jock Serong, The Rules of Backyard Cricket

“As we neared, the great mass of Wilson’s Promontory stretched southward out of the coast on our right, and the island drew threads of cloud from the low sky and teased them into mirages: the island was burning, the island was cut from coal or obsidian; the island was not there at all.”
― Jock Serong, The Burning Island

“Rifling through my bag to get padded up, I can tell that Mum’s been in it. The pads have been strapped neatly around the bat, and inside each of them is a rolled-up bathtowel. A Granny Smith in the bottom of the bag. Spare socks. It’s eleven. She’ll be mopping out the bar at the Mona Castle, rolling in the new kegs.”
― Jock Serong, The Rules of Backyard Cricket

“Craig, on the other hand, sees nothing but blue skies in this change of circumstance. He’s been busy setting up a business he calls Wattle It Be, a touring fan club for the Australian cricket side. Ahead of every international tour he buys cut-price packages for people like himself: sweaty single males who like to drink and chant while they get sunburnt in front of sport. The whole concept is horrific, but it’s a roaring success. He’s turning people away. After two or three tours he works out thtat he can recruit a retired Test player to operate as a kind of figurehead and pub coach, offering special comments and war stories, and the not-quite-promise of access to the players. Pg140”
― Jock Serong, The Rules of Backyard Cricket

“The early morning had a faint drizzle in it. Tiny specks, a day that meant itself to be fine but had somehow leaked.”
― Jock Serong, The Burning Island

“Sydney is not an end, nor an answer.”
― Jock Serong, Preservation