New Zealanders Explain the Internet

BUT FIRST: “I need your WIFI password to Skpye with my dad.”

—Jesus H. Christ (raconteur)

ON EXPERIMENTATION:“I mean, the general rule is if you're not prepared to make a mistake, you're not going to make much progress.”

—Maurice Wilkins (physicist & biologist)

ON CENSORSHIP: “For your own good is a persuasive argument that will eventually make a man agree to his own destruction.”

—Janet Frame (author)

ON HOAXES:“I wish I had Wonder Woman's magic lasso like her to make people tell the truth.”

—Kylie Bax (model & actress)

ON GEEK CULTURE:“To me, Darth Vader is the epitome of evil.”

—Manu Bennett (actor)

ON AMERICAN EXPORTS:“Tell people you're a Canadian or a Kiwi when you travel and they'll adore you.”

—Daniel Gillies (actor)

ON DIGITAL DIETS:“It's just a matter of understanding what's necessary and discipline yourself to do it.”

—Arthur Lydiard (runner & coach)

ON ACTIVISM: “The quest for peace begins in the home, in the school and in the workplace.”

—Silvia Cartwright (former Governor-General)

ON PUBLISHING:“A lot of writing's going down dead ends that don't go anywhere.”

—Andrew Dominik (director & screenwriter)

ON CELEBRITY:“People do not decide to become extraordinary. They decide to accomplish extraordinary things.”

—Edmund Hillary (explorer)

ON FINDING YOUR TRIBE:“I was a kid who didn't have a lot of self-esteem.”

—Melanie Lynskey (actress)

ON ANONYMITY:“I was able to grow up and do silly things and have a life with only a small amount of public scrutiny.”

—Keisha Castle-Hughes (actress)

ON NARRATIVES:“Writing is a passion I have never understood, yet a storyteller is all I have ever wanted to be.”

—Ruth Park (author)

ON INSPIRATION:“I, personally, have found reading a continual support to writing.”

—Margaret Mahy (author)

ON PASSION:“Love has the quality of informing almost everything - even one's work.”

—Sylvia Ashton-Warner (writer, poet & educator)

ON SEXISM: “I'm a writer first and a woman after.”

—Katherine Mansfield (modernist writer)

ON ONLINE DATING:“It makes it very exciting don't you think to live in an age of, of discovery of human personality this way?”

—John Money (sexologist & author)

ON CHANGE:“Happiness comes from... Some curious adjustment to life.”

—Hugh Walpole (novelist)

ON CHALLENGES:“That's always an interesting concept when you try to make your dream into a reality and you come up against the facts of exactly what it is you're attempting to do.”

—Karl Urban (actor)

ON GETTING PAID: “Personally, I've never done things just for money.”

—Glenn Turner (cricketer)

ON COMMENT THREADS;“Treat everyone the same until you find out they're an idiot.”

—Lucy Lawless (actress & activist)

ON TEAMWORK:“Collaboration is the best way to work. It's the only way to work, really. Everyone's there because they have a set of skills to offer across the board.”

—Antony Starr (actor)

ON MODERATING: “Peace is a fragile thing. It takes courage to secure it. It takes wisdom to maintain it.”

—Jenny Shipley (former Prime Minister)

ON SEARCH:“This sounds an extraordinary statement to make, but in fact all truth is very ordinary.’

—Brian Perkins (broadcaster)

ON FREELANCING:“Sometimes I think, 'Oh, I wish I just had a nice job where you're getting a salary.' Just sometimes.”

—Temuera Morrison (actor)

ON BRAVERY:“How do I take a step? How do I lift my foot off the ground, move it through the air a little bit and then bring it down? I had to teach myself to walk again.”

—Jonah Lomu (rugby player)

ON SELFIES:“All you need is a bad angle and suddenly you're 30 pounds overweight.”

—Rachel Hunter (model & actress)

ON EDUCATION:“You get what you're good enough to take.”

—David Kirk (rugby player)

ON HATERS: “I was bullied and regarded as little bit of an oddball myself.”

—Peter Jackson (Groundskeeper, Middle Earth)

ON PROGRESS:“A huge change has taken place in my lifetime.”

—Michael King (historian)

ON CONTENT: “People are consuming more than ever, but I think they want a bit of honesty and depth.”

—Kimbra (recording artist)

ON CONNECTIVITY:“The world, whether we like it or not, will become more and more borderless.”

—John Key (Prime Minister)

ON OPPORTUNITY:“I always thought I'd go to university and then get a real job, you know. Now I want to do stuff that really makes me happy.”

—Martin Henderson (actor)

ON JOURNALISM: “With any good story, you need the adversary, the heroes and villains. You need a good mixture to make it work.”

—Phil Keoghan (television personality)

ON FREEDOM: “I'm completely in charge of my own life now. Sometimes there's no one there to slap me on the hand and say: 'Stop being so bullish and bossy,' and things like that.”

—Kiri Te Kanawa (opera singer)

ON MANUFACTURED OUTRAGE: “We used to say that he who threw the biggest tantrum won the day.”

—Neil Finn (recording artist)

ON CURIOSITY:“A good education should leave much to be desired.”

—Alan Gregg (musician)

ON CAT VIDEOS:“Dumbing down takes many forms: art that is good for you, museums that flatter you, universities that increase your self-esteem. Culture, after all, is really about you.”

—Denis Dutton (philosopher & web entrepreneur)

ON BLATHERING: “Business can talk itself into a blue funk.”

—Helen Clark (former Prime Minister)