John Clarke: Thanks for Your Time

We didn't dress up and we didn't do voices, and that was a product of having done it on radio for a year — it just seemed silly to go and do it any other way.

– Bryan Dawe on transferring ABC radio show Clarke and Dawe to television

Clarke’s skill for parody was never more keen than in his take on the famous opening section of Dylan Thomas’ ‘A Child’s Christmas in Wales’. Shifting the festivities to rural Victoria, Clarke revels in Thomas’ potent, lilting language, inheriting the spirit of the original rather than merely commenting on it.

– Writer Jonny Potts on JohnClarke's poetic abilities in his 1989 collection The Complete Book of Australian Verse, The Spinoff, 21 May 2017

I'm just near the window.

– A Norwegian politician ( John Clarke) is asked "what's your position?"

I had a trick, and the trick was to never ever look at John's eyes. Always the forehead. And if I did that I was okay.

– Bryan Dawe on how he controlled his laughter while working with John Clarke

He loved to chat, John, if chatting were an Olympic sport, John Clarke could have represented two countries at once and won gold for both.

– Friend and collaborator Bryan Dawe on John Clarke, The Sydney Morning Herald, 3 July 2017

He was as big as the Beatles — it seemed like that, and I think it would have been pretty tough for him in that he wouldn't have been able to leave the house without people mistaking him for Fred Dagg, and it became necessary for John to leave New Zealand and leave Fred behind. Australia kind of liberated him...yeah, it was a liberation.

– Sam Neill on John Clarke's decision to move to Australia in the late 1970s

Bullshit really annoyed him. Management speak really annoyed him.

– Producer Kate Torney on John Clarke's pet hates

Studies show that a lot of studies are crap, Bryan.

– John Clarke in an excerpt from episode three of acclaimed ABC comedy series The Games

I remember one skit he did, he played Bob Hawke and he played me, and it was about the time I replaced Bob as Prime Minister. And so it's a contest from our particular points of view, you know...but he had it pretty right.

– Former Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating on John Clarke's impersonation of him

All of John's characters were kind of a variation of the Australian or the New Zealand bloke that he found inherently funny, and I don't think any of us had actually considered that before, that New Zealand blokes could be funny.

– Actor Sam Neill talks about his friend John Clarke's humour

My wife would say "if it's John don't answer it", and of course you have to answer to John, because it's the most entertaining hour of your life.

– Fast Lane co-writer Andrew Knight on John Clarke's love of a good chinwag

I'm sure everyone will say "John loved a long chat".

– The Games actor Gina Riley on John Clarke

He actually just observed Australia for a few years, just to kind of get an angle on the nuances and the culture instead of just jumping right in, going "well I was big there so I could instantly be big here".

– Australian comedian Frank Woodley on John Clarke's gradual move into Australian radio and TV