Quentin Bryce: Again and again, I learn how much friendship enriches m...

When a woman is fit and healthy, everything else falls into place. We are conditioned to put others first, that 'burnt chop syndrome' we observed in our mothers. It takes discipline to pay attention to our diets, to exercise, to leave time for refreshment of mind, body and spirit.

Quentin Bryce

women mother fall

Yes, you can have it all, but not all at the same time. Set your own priorities, trust your gut and follow your heart.

Quentin Bryce

yes-you-can women heart

Seek out a person whom you admire and respect for the support you need - that we all need from time to time.

Quentin Bryce

support-you admire needs

I believe the old boys' network is a powerful one. No one gives up power and privilege willingly, do they?

Quentin Bryce

giving-up powerful believe

For a very long time now I've been saying to young women, 'You can have it all, but not all at the same time.' How important it is to take very good care of yourself, of your mental and physical and spiritual wellbeing; it's hard to do. It's easier to be a workaholic than to have a truly balanced life.

Quentin Bryce

important spiritual long

I think we have to keep working enormously hard to see that every single Indigenous child - every Australian child - has true equality of opportunity. Weve got to work harder at it. I think, you know, the heartland issue for us is the gap; the gap in life expectancy in this country.

Quentin Bryce

hard-work country children

The bonds that women share around the world, wherever we come from, they're very powerful and they have an ease of communication because we share those very important things of our families, our mothering, of improving opportunities for the next generation.

Quentin Bryce

communication powerful opportunity

The thing we often forget to talk about, or perhaps we take for granted, is our country’s dazzling beauty. Our natural environment is so much a part of Australia’s art, writing, music and culture, both indigenous and non indigenous.

Quentin Bryce

writing country art

My mother played the piano and my father the violin, I can remember my dad teaching me how to waltz; I had my feet on his, my mother playing the piano, and my husband will tell you the lessons weren't very successful.

Quentin Bryce

dad husband mother

I think there's a very clear recognition and understanding that the progress of women in business at the very highest decision-making levels is too slow. This is a discussion that's going on in every country around the world, actually.

Quentin Bryce

decision country thinking

Begun as a girl from a little country town in central western Queensland, inspired by noble ideas of justice, about fairness, about making the world a better place.

Quentin Bryce

girl education country

All women need support when they're having their babies and their little families are in formation. I have to say I have a lot of concern about the numbers of women - and men, now - who are not getting the support that they need. There are not the families and the communities around that there used to be.

Quentin Bryce

numbers baby men

I've never owned a pair of jeans, but I had a fantastic denim boiler-suit and it got a lot of wearing.

Quentin Bryce

denim pairs jeans

We all go back to our roots. My father went to the central west, went to Ilfracombe in 1919. He was the manager of the wool scour there. And, Ilfracombe was right at the heart of Australia's great wool industry, and my mother was a teacher at Winton.

Quentin Bryce

mother teacher father

I support affirmative action. I support special measures when you need it.

Quentin Bryce

support special needs

The Australian way of affirmative action is setting goals and recognising discrimination and lack of opportunity and deciding to take action and setting some goals and targets. I guess I prefer that language to talking about quotas.

Quentin Bryce

goal opportunity talking

One of the most enjoyable things I do at Government House and when I travel around Australia is to talk with children. I tell them about our parliamentary democracy - and I often do that as I'm walking into an Executive Council meeting next door!

Quentin Bryce

government doors children

The aboriginal women leaders of Papunya - the Papunya Artists - performed a dance for me: the Honey Ant dance. They'd never done it for anyone else. They honoured me with a ceremonial stick that signifies the story of the land.

Quentin Bryce

land leader artist

Graduation day was a milestone in the most important journey of all - to the centre of oneself.

Quentin Bryce

learning journey education

Livelihoods and whole communities throughout the Murray-Darling Basin have been imperilled by the workings of drought, fire, flood, acid mud and human action over many decades. In the rescues and the cleanups and the long hauls, I see the same attitude over and again. People just rally and get on with it.

Quentin Bryce

fire attitude long people

Again and again, I learn how much friendship enriches my life, bringing warmth, assurance, humour, inspiration, a sense of security. It depends on honesty, trust, loyalty. It's about giving. It's for sharing the good times, but also the tough times, hurt, grief, sadness.