Michael Leunig
Michael Leunig
Michael Leunig, typically referred to as Leunig, is an Australian cartoonist, poet and cultural commentator. His best known works include The Adventures of Vasco Pyjama and the Curly Flats series. He was declared an Australian Living Treasure by the National Trust of Australia in 1999...
NationalityAustralian
ProfessionCartoonist
Date of Birth2 June 1945
CountryAustralia
claiming difficult fear free history imagine lived people time
It is difficult to imagine any time in history when so many people claiming to be so free have lived in so much fear of being unattractive.
candle combustion fear flame human imagination lit mysterious nuclear relationship
The human relationship to combustion is as mysterious as it is fraught with madness. From the candle flame to the nuclear blast, it has lit up the human imagination with fear and fascination.
concern discuss easily fear instead later life nicely polite primal seems talk
In later life, we don't easily talk of fears, but instead we discuss our 'concerns.' Fear seems too primal and hysterical, but concern is polite and intellectual and nicely under control.
constant fear fearing finding huge humans might people perhaps state whether wonder
I increasingly wonder whether most humans are in a constant state of unconsciously fearing each other. Perhaps they fear how intimately different other people might be to them, and the problem is that there is no real way of finding out just how huge that difference might be.
ability delusional distract great life ourselves speed technology totally velocity whether
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.
time
I see a lot of my children. They're around the house all the time on the farm, you know.
courts landed marks paper recall sorts
Over the years, my marks on paper have landed me in all sorts of courts and controversies - I have been comprehensively labelled; anti-this and anti-that, anti-social, anti-football, anti-woman, anti-gay, anti-Semitic, anti-science, anti-republican, anti-American, anti-Australian - to recall just an armful of the antis.
cast change economic lose onto resources suddenly talents wits
Out of economic hardship can come change - we are suddenly cast onto our wits and our talents and our resources and our strengths, as we lose all the choices we once had.
function melancholy
I think melancholy is part of the natural condition, you know. Anyway, I think it's the artist's function to have their melancholy and not hide it, you see.
arise best humbling wisdom
Wisdom may best arise from a humbling reality.
alone dares evermore protest shall
Who can protest alone? Who dares rise up? It is not easy. One is all alone, and evermore shall be so.
inner
Stay out of the loop, the club, the inner circle.
excellence stay
Stay away from excellence at all costs; it stinks.
comprehend further human monstrous truths understanding
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.