Mercury Lane - Series One, Episode 13

He can hear things that the rest of us can't necessarily hear: he's incredibly perceptive when it comes to pop music.

– Music veteran Simon Grigg on Alan Jansson

(Alan) Jansson's the guy behind the guy, the puppet master, the invisible pop star.

– Reporter Colin Hogg

Maurice's tribe were the artists: they were the people with whom he belonging and with whom he identified.

– Cherry Hankin on Maurice Shadbolt's affinity with artists like Colin McCahon

I think experience … memory, and especially memory, is crucial. That’s your reservoir, that’s what you’re drawing upon. Even if you’re writing about people very unlike yourself, in a very different situation and in a very different period of time, you must refer to your knowledge of yourself.

– Maurice Shadbolt in 1985

I can't to this day understand people who talk about having to get out of New Zealand to make a go of things as a writer and artist. This IS where the action is, this is untilled soil, it's virgin landscape for the artist.

– Maurice Shadbolt in 1973