it was exactly like what the old law people had always said would happen if you look after country, country will look after you. - Alexis Wright

(what is one thing that you want people to take away from The Swan Book?) AW: Just to be kind to the world – it is the only one we have, and to be kinder to each other and to see the beauty and genius in all our cultures, and to see the beauty and right to exist and thrive of the creatures sharing this planet with us. The Swan Book asks for respect and the need to gain greater knowledge and respect for the responsibilities that Indigenous peoples have for the good stewardship of the world.

In every neck of the woods people walked in the imagination of doomsayers and talked the language of extinction. (p5)

People tell stories all the time: the stories they want told, where any story could be changed or warped this way or that. (p84)