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" Pursuit is a rather desperate act in itself. There's something kind of frantic about the notion of pursuit. "
Michael Leunig
Something
Act
Desperate
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" Perhaps life is actually more confusing and unknowable to an adult than a child, but grown-ups have learned to deceive themselves and act as if they understand what's going on; and some are elected to high office on the basis of their ability to create this impression. "
Michael Leunig
Office
Understand
Child
" In some ways, calm bodily protest has a nakedness to it that may be deeply embarrassing for observers; an act not unlike the bare-faced Oliver Twist effrontery that stands vulnerably before authority, asking for more or better. "
Michael Leunig
Protest
Calm
More
" As a cartoonist, I am not interested in defending the dominant, the powerful, the well-resourced and the well-armed because such groups are usually not in need of advocacy, moral support or sympathetic understanding; they have already organised sufficient publicity for themselves and prosecute their points of view with great efficiency. "
Michael Leunig
View
Great
I Am
" You wouldn't wish hardship on anyone, but when it comes, you would be crazy not to see the huge growth that will come from it. "
Michael Leunig
Wish
See
You
" There is a central flaw in contemporary culture and a corresponding and related inability to address it. Society seems somehow unable to adequately help or protect itself. Normal citizens feel powerless, isolated and disturbed. "
Michael Leunig
Culture
Society
Normal
" In contemporary art culture, where good looks and clever strategic planning of art careers have become a feature, professional practice may be taught in art schools like a branch of public relations or political science. "
Michael Leunig
Practice
Science
Good
" It's a consoling notion that death is a very tiny hole, and you need to make yourself very small to get through it. One obviously needs to lighten off, and a rucksack full of bricks or a mantelpiece full of trophies will certainly have to be abandoned - the sooner the better, I say. "
Michael Leunig
You
Yourself
Better
" If you're becoming weary and disillusioned with Australian values, Judeo-Christian values or Western civilisation, I recommend strangers - they're such a glorious, redeeming wilderness to wander into. "
Michael Leunig
You
Strangers
Values
" Any cartoon that can be liked by a committee is really not worth drawing; in fact, must not be drawn at all! Better to become a stockbroker. "
Michael Leunig
Cartoon
Better
Drawing
" I don't think I have spiritual beliefs in the structured sense - but I believe in the absolute necessity of spirit and a healthy spiritual life. It grew inside me by itself, which is surely the very nature of spirit, and instinctively I protected and nourished it. I also absorbed spirituality by osmosis. "
Michael Leunig
Believe
Think
Spiritual
" The disasters of war can be infinitely eerie and poignant. "
Michael Leunig
War
Eerie
Disasters
" The repression of virtuous instinct in the modern world is an incremental tragedy. Repress one instinct, and you repress many; other parts of consciousness go down, also. "
Michael Leunig
Down
Consciousness
You
" Humans are nervous, touchy creatures and can be easily offended. Many are deeply insecure. They become focused and energized by taking offence; it makes them feel meaningful and alive. "
Michael Leunig
Feel
Offended
Nervous
" My father was a meat worker. He was a union organizer in the meat workers union. "
Michael Leunig
Worker
Workers
Union
" I must warn you right here and now that I am a 'wet leftie,' a 'leftist' and also a member of the 'bleeding heart liberal left.' I had no say in it whatsoever. I woke up one morning, and these things were tattooed across my forehead. "
Michael Leunig
You
Say
Heart
" At the age of nine, I simultaneously fell in love with two Dutch sisters because they seemed so beautifully strange, and their clothes were mysterious and alluring - added to which, they could not speak a word of English. More than anything, I wanted to connect with them and embark on a vast journey of exploration. "
Michael Leunig
Love
Speak
Two
" Democracy just isn't working any more; without sanity at its heart, it is becoming a most unique and fiendish tyranny. "
Michael Leunig
Heart
Democracy
Tyranny
" There is some suffering that awaits us all. "
Michael Leunig
Suffering
Some
Us
" I have sometimes done cartoons that are hurtful to people - immature, spiteful stuff. Some are so self-indulgent, and some have just failed. I look back and sometimes cringe. But one regret as I get older is that I haven't been radical and wild enough. "
Michael Leunig
Done
Wild
Regret
" When I was a boy, my own dad told me in a smiling and wistful way that it's a wise man that knows his own father. "
Michael Leunig
Father
Wise
Smiling
" People seem to take as much offence as they possibly can these days - it's almost a new type of greed, a new kind of road rage. "
Michael Leunig
Road
People
Rage
" Many people first encounter Jesus during childhood when they are suddenly confronted by a horrifying statue of a man nailed to a cross, and this is often a most unfortunate and repulsive beginning. "
Michael Leunig
Childhood
Beginning
First
" Try as I do to comprehend the human project and my part in it, I am further than ever from understanding the monstrous everyday things that seem like self-evident truths and existential necessities to so many. "
Michael Leunig
Try
Like
I Am
" There are times when the art world seems like a religious empire. There are great cathedral galleries and pilgrimage sites where treasured art pieces are displayed like holy relics, and this can certainly be a great pleasure on a rainy Sunday afternoon. "
Michael Leunig
World
Sunday
Great
" Sadly, semi-consciousness, along with daydreaming, is a capacity that is actively discouraged among children in schools, and our society is much poorer and harsher as a consequence. The value of liminal space and transitional imagination remain personally and culturally undeveloped. "
Michael Leunig
Space
Society
Children
" What modern humans need help with is escaping from the despair of politics, commerce and media, escaping from the drabness and oppressiveness of worldly values and seeing through suburban mentality and normal community standards so that they can find some much-needed relief for their wilting souls. "
Michael Leunig
Politics
Values
Community
" At last, after completing year 12, I failed the great final examination, repeated the following year and failed again even more dismally than before. This was not an easy thing to do. My mates did the simple thing in the first place and mainly passed with honours and went on to have remarkably successful lives. "
Michael Leunig
Place
Simple
Successful
" Modern man is probably a more humiliated and depressed creature than he dares to know. "
Michael Leunig
More
Than
Know
" I think we live in delusional times, whether it's with a great ability to totally distract ourselves with technology, or with speed and the velocity of life. "
Michael Leunig
Life
Technology
Think
" In nicey-nicey land, you must be happy-clappy and positive all the time - bad news is taboo. "
Michael Leunig
Positive
Time
You