Jean Batten

"...Australia like New Zealand is still very much 'a man's country"

"I find it hard to believe that I do not have to go on somewhere else... but there doesn't seem anywhere else to go, unless to the Antarctic. But one thing I do know: when I travel for a while after this I am going by train or road transport. I have had enough of the air for the time being."

"How bitter-sweet it all was, I reflected — flying about the world, visiting these great cities, meeting many people, making many friends, then having to fly off again."

"the intoxicating drug of speed, and freedom to roam the earth."

"If I go down in the sea...no one must fly out to look for me."

"But England to Naples in a day is no mean feat for any man, let alone a girl without any previous long-distance experience."

"...my only company the roar of the engine as I winged low over the ocean like a solitary bird... I might have been the only person in the world."

"There have been times when the loneliness has been so intense that I have longed for the sound of a human voice or the sight of a ship, or even a tiny native village, to dispel the feeling of complete isolation that one feels when flying alone over the sparsely inhabited tracts that comprise such a great area of the earth's surface."

"...would not even consider it until I had attained my ambition, for I was determined to try again."

"I was able to fly from England to New Zealand in the fastest time in the history of the world...I think I can say this is the very greatest moment of my life."

"I have experienced the cool, rarefied atmosphere of the Olympic heights where the famous dwell in lonely solitude."

"Ted, if you love me, lend me the lower wings from your Moth."

"...I had served my apprenticeship and was now a cool, ruthless, potential record-breaker."