PAUL KEATING

You see, psychologically, Australia must understand it has to live in the region around it. Australia must find its security in Asia; it cannot find its security from Asia.

In the end, rational policy is always good.

One tires of combat, although I can still throw a punch, you know.

I used to say in the cabinet room, 'confidence is not like a can of Popeye spinach - you can't take the top off and swallow it down.' You know, confidence has to be earned.

You see, before I became prime minister, the Australian prime minister only attended ever two meetings in the world: the British Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting and the South Pacific Forum.

You get one chance to do something about native title. You get perhaps one chance in your life to do something about a republic. You get one chance, your chance, to build a piece of the political architecture in the Pacific. I wasn't going to give those up.

When the Berlin Wall came down the Americans cried, 'Victory,' and walked off the field.

Well, I think that - I think leadership's always been about two main things: imagination and courage.

I've always held the view that great states need strategic space. I mean, George Washington took his space from George III. Britain took it from just about everybody. Russia took all of Eastern Europe. Germany's taken it from everywhere they can, and China will want its space too.

If one takes pride in one's craft, you won't let a good thing die. Risking it through not pushing hard enough is not a humility.

The great curse of modern political life is incrementalism.

The G7, just a European centric show, an Atlantic show, is fundamentally finished.

Well, Australians should speak for the national interests of Australia, and whatever role former Australian prime ministers may have, one of the things you do is speak frankly about the country as you see the country's best interests, you know?

Nobody wants to have in their CV in the upper echelons of the American economic family that they nationalised major banks.

I try to use the Australian idiom to its maximum advantage.

You know, in the WikiLeaks cables, the Chinese discovered that Kevin Rudd was urging the Americans to keep the military option open against them. This is hardly a friendly gesture.

The great changes in civilisation and society have been wrought by deeply held beliefs and passion rather than by a process of rational deduction.

I think the Australian people are very conscientious. During the 1980s and 1990s we proved they will respond conscientiously to necessary reforms. They mightn't like them but they'll accept them. But reforms have to be presented in a digestible format.

I think the rise of China is one of the great events of all economic and human history, and I think this will be overwhelmingly a positive thing for the region and the world.

I always believed in burning up the government's political capital, not being Mr Safe Guy, you know?

The United States being in Asia is unambiguously a good thing for the region.

I think Australia has to be a country which has the 'Welcome' sign out.

Politicians come in three varieties: straight men, fixers, and maddies.

He's a pre-Copernican obscurantist

No choice we can make as a nation lies between our history and our geography. We can hardly change either of them. They are immutable. The only choice we can make as a nation is the choice about our future.