'I’ve prepared and delivered this sort of address once before. That was in September 2001, at a conference similar to this in Newcastle, New South Wales. At that time, no book of mine had been published during the previous six years; nor had I written or planned during those years anything that might have gone towards any sort of book. During those six years, the time that I might otherwise have given to writing for publication I had used for adding to my archives. None of the matters mentioned in the previous two sentences was mentioned in my address to the scholars at Newcastle.' (Introduction)
'It often rains in Glebe. The suburb is surely wetter than any other, a soaked spongy place, subtropical and ever-damp, populated by giant, bombastic foliage. The blue shade of fig trees is a memory of water. In the gorgeously named Arcadia Road, banked by twenty Hills Weeping Figs, the downcast ripple of shadow can only be called subaquatic.' (Introduction)
