I think Melbourne is by far and away the most interesting place in Australia, and I thought if I ever wrote a novel or crime novel of any kind, I had to set it here.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
I definitely love Australia. I've been to Sydney and Melbourne a couple of times, and I love those places.
I have visited Australia several times, and I always try to make a point of going to Melbourne because it's almost my favorite city there, Melbourne and Sydney. But I shouldn't say that because I haven't been everywhere-and I'm very fond of Perth too!
I suppose most crime writing is urban. There's not a lot... certainly not in Australia, people don't often set books in the countryside.
It's got more cosmopolitan, and it's lost its uniqueness, but Australia is still a great place.
I was first in Sydney in 1993, and have been a few times since then. For someone who didn't know Australia, it came as a shock how intelligent, interesting and funny the people were. If I lived there I might see it differently, but as a visitor it was a lot of fun.
Actually, Sydney is my second favourite city on earth, I love Sydney, but this is the greatest.
I just think Australia tends to make very good movies, so if someone hands me an Australian or an American film script I would guess the Australian film would be more intriguing.
I wonder if it is Australia's great distance from more populated land masses that allows its inhabitants to be left to their own devices, to be incredibly creative and, at times, to be wonderfully weird.
Australia turns out to be a sensational place, albeit one of the most comfortably racist places I've ever been in. They've really settled into their intolerance like an old resentful slipper.
I grew up close to Melbourne, about two hours outside, on Phillip Island. It's really small; it's kind of a little summer beach town.