Melbourne Quotes

“Regional interests and loyalties are even stronger among Australians than among Americans - in that in social life they exist almost without challenge. Canberra is a poor thing compared to Washington and there is no great metropolis like New York that sets many of the nation's trends. There is no generally acknowledged central city where the important things are believed to happen and it seems better to be.”
― Donald Horne, The Lucky Country

“I saw the bumpy shape of my skull, I saw myself shorn and revealed. I wandered in a dream around the city, glimpsing in shop windows a strange creature with my face.”
― Helen Garner, Monkey Grip

“In the mid-1980s, on a spring Sunday morning, a Volvo stationwagon parked in Brunswick Street. A young couple got out. She was trim, blonded, tanned. He was already broadening in the midsection, sockless, short and hairy legs ending in boatshoes. From a restraining chair in the back seat, he unloaded a child, complaining, flailing. They took it into a cafe.

They were going to have brunch.

The old Brunswick Street was dead, Brunchwick Street born. There was no turning back.”
― Peter Temple, White Dog

“Then they had a day together in Melbourne and Jenny stayed in her first hotel, with Luc sparing no expense and treating her to the Windsor for the night. Here, Jenny experienced a luxury that had her wide-eyed, where men in their fine uniform of burgundy jackets, trimmed with gold, fussed around them and suggested an afternoon tea like never before. Luc couldn’t help but grin to see his daughter engulfed in a leather chair, near the huge arched picture windows that fronted Spring Street, choosing cucumber sandwiches and beautiful little cakes and pastries from a silver tiered cake stand.”
― Fiona McIntosh, The French Promise

“The two big cities of Australia are tonally as distinct from each other as Boston is from L.A. or Lyon from Marseilles.”
― Helen Garner

“The tram’s brakes screech and the bell dings as a four-wheel drive turns in front of it. I hope no one inside took a tumble – then again it’s the 86 and probably full of hipsters. They’ll land softly on their beards.”
― Shivaun Plozza, Frankie

“You will notice that I have not written about the horrors of prison life, or the conditions, hardships, treatment and so forth, because men reading this book who have been to jail will be bored to tears and people who haven't been to jail can bloody well come in here and find out for themselves.”
― Mark Brandon Read, From The Inside

“A lemon tree was nearly universal; other trees varied with climate - almond trees in Adelaide and Perth, plums and apples in Melbourne, choke vines and bananas in Sydney and Brisbane, a mango in Cairns, figs and loquats everywhere. For a few weeks, there was a gross overabundance of fruit and much trading ('I'll take some of your plums if you take some of my apples next month').”
― George Seddon

“In Melbourne they have more need of cake,” said Stefan, “having more or less nothing else.”
― Madeleine St. John, The Women in Black

“When Lillian (Holt) argues that leadership steals your spirit, she means that institutional pressures change you; they erode your courage, passion and humour and wear you down so that important things don't get named and get overtaken by the trivial. In the following excerpts from one interview I undertook with her, Lillian elaborates why Indigenous Australians find it hard to speak out.

There is a systemic blockage. Something happens to Aboriginal people who work in hierarchies, whether bureaucracy or academic… a bit like my own story of climbing the ladder of success. You get to the top and find it bereft, bereft of passion, bereft of intuition, of emotion. 'For God's sake don't talk about emotion in a place like this!”
― Amanda Sinclair

“Critical and feminist theorists show that most leadership research, including studies of transformational leadership, continue to present prescriptions - heroic or post-heroic - as if they were gender neutral. The critics argue that, although there is a search for a different kind of leader- a 'post-heroic hero' who displays characteristics different from the traditional model - even this leader continues 'to enjoy the same godlike reverence for individualism associated with traditional models'.”
― Amanda Sinclair, Leadership for the Disillusioned: Moving Beyond Myths and Heroes to Leading That Liberates

“...the work of his favourite painter at the time, brett whitely, seemed to offer some focus for his rebellious attitude towards moribund suburban melbourne. cave was intrigued by the intensity and diversity of the themes that the sydney-based painter included in his landscapes”
― Ian Johnston

“Celebrating Valentine's Day is like falling in love with Point Cook all over again.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“Falling in love with Melbourne is like celebrating Valentine's Day every day.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“Falling in love with Victoria is like celebrating Valentine's Day every day.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“Victoria may be my valentine, but Melbourne will always be my wife.”
― Anthony T. Hincks

“I had been working there for several months [in New York], in that climate of intellectual openness which is so astonishing to an Australian...”
― Helen Garner, The First Stone

“Matthew Jacob Hiers, a business professional with a law background, is strongly committed to community service.”
― Matthew Jacob Hiers

“Restrictions
can't stop our music, can't stop us.”
― Karen Comer, Grace Notes

“Discover culinary greatness at Spice Mantra, the crown gem of dining in Hampton, Melbourne. Indulge in exquisite flavors and perfect service that have procured us the standing as the best restaurant in the area. From traditional Indian delicacies to contemporary twists, experience a gastronomic excursion like no other at Spice Mantra.”
― Spice Mantra