Helen Garner

It's disturbing at my age to look at a young woman's destructive behaviour and hear the echoes of it, of one's own destructiveness in youth.

Janet Malcolm's probably the writer I most admire and who's most influenced me.

Courts are supposed to be places of reason. But this, of course, is a fantasy. I mean, there is reason being used as a technique. But courts, in fact, are baths of emotions.

Another thing that freaks me out is time. Time is like a book. You have a beginning, a middle and an end. It's just a cycle.

I really think the most important thing I do is to protect the dignity and the integrity of the Office of the Surgeon General.