“The longer he practised his craft, the more conscious he became of the dynamic of language, of speech and writing as events in themselves. The simplest and most obvious proposition, stated in the most elementary language, could so mutate itself in the mind of the reader that it could express the opposite of what the writer had intended. What he wrote as evidence for the defence could hang the man he was defending.”

— Morris West

Reflection of Nicol Peters, journalist, in Ch. III
Lazarus (1990)

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Morris West 36

Australian writer 1916–1999

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