The Respectable Addiction

Most weekends I would have two or three speeches over a weekend, sometimes more, but that's an average. We would usually have something to attend on a Saturday night. We'd try and keep Sunday night free, but like last Sunday, that didn't work.

– Mayor of Wellington Kerry Prendergast

My work ethic, I look at it as actually being an entertainer ... when the doors open, it's like the curtain goes up; it's showtime. I do more mistakes when it's quiet than what I do when I'm flat chack ... I function better when it's busy. I'm one of those people that's virtually married to my work.

– Rob Hope, maître d' at Christchurch restaurant Le Bon Bolli, early in this documentary

I'm not a workaholic — and if I am, would that be a bad thing? No.

– Christchurch restauranteur Phillip Kraal, early in this documentary

There's one streak in all politicians: they are quite strange in that they have missed out on some approval at an early stage, and are looking for public approval to replace that, and it's a drive that is fruitless and endless.

– Rex Nicholls, husband of Wellington Mayor Kerry Prendergast

You reach a stage when you suddenly realise that you're not really bulletproof. And I've reached that.

– Journalist and author Pat Booth, who died in 2018