Colleen McCullough

Colleen McCullough AO (1 June 1937 – 29 January 2015) is an internationally acclaimed Australian author. She was born in Wellington in central west New South Wales.

Quotes

 * There is a legend about a bird that sings just once in its life, more sweetly than any other creature on the face of the earth. From the moment it leaves the nest it searches for a thorn tree and does not rest until it has found one. Then, singing among the savage branches, it impales itself upon the longest, sharpest spine. Dying, it rises above its own agony to out-carol the lark and the nightingale. One superlative song, existence the price. But the whole world stills to listen, and God in His heaven smiles. For the best is only bought at the cost of the great pain. … Or so says the legend.
 * Epigraph, The Thorn Birds (1977)


 * I hate being on my best behavior. It brings out the absolute worst in me.
 * Justine, in The Thorn Birds (1977)


 * The lovely thing about being forty is that you can appreciate twenty-five-year-old men more.
 * As quoted in Write to the Heart : Wit & Wisdom Of Women Writers (1992) by Amber Coverdale Sumrall