James Moloney Quotes

“I wondered why white blokes didn’t worry about the Moodagudda much.”

“Even my Mum’s laughing. She don’t usually laugh when Dad is drinking. That’s most of the time so Mum don’t laugh much at all when he’s around.”

“Gracey’s my sister. I like her. She’s not like the rest of the girls in town. She don’t chase after all the boys and play that game like. She could catch them all right, don’t you worry. Gracey’s the fastest girl across the ground you’ve ever seen.”

“Mum doesn’t believe the story about the Moodagudda but I do, and I’m too scared to keep my back to the river.”

“Johnny Warren says there’s lots of things aren’t fair in our town. Like blacks aren’t supposed to drink in the pub, not many of them anyway; and not him.”

“She could have done it herself- maybe it didn’t need to be done at all- but Gracey knew I wanted to handle the shoes, to see how light they were, to test how sharp the spikes were. Gracey’s good to me.”

“Gracey, these are nomination forms for the State Championships in Brisbane. I think you should enter the one hundred metres, just to have a go. There’s no competition for you round here. It’s time we found out how good you really are compared to other girls.”

“Yeah, but you’re from this small town, eh. The Department’s crazy about helping kids from places like this get a fair go. They’ll help you with things they wouldn’t do for black kids living in the city.”

″‘My Mum and Dad reckon it stinks, that’s what.’ ‘What stinks?’ asked Brett, still keeping his voice low. ‘That blacks get things for nothing that everyone else has to work hard for.‘”

″“I remember how happy Gracey was that afternoon, but it didn’t last long. When they got off that bus, every one of those kids was celebrating, white kids, black kids, it didn’t matter, but the next morning all the fun was washed out of the white kids.”