The Road to Jerusalem

He was a man who walked out, and left everything behind him ... [he] became like a beggar.

– James K Baxter's ex-wife JC Sturm

It changed Jim. The road from India led to Jerusalem. That plus the shock of being a member of an ethnic minority group.

– James K Baxter's ex-wife JC Sturm on Baxter's time in India

...I said to him "I thought when you left you said 'no more books, no more poems.' And he just looked at me and said "Colin, I can't help it ... They just crawl up my back."

– Colin Durning recalls a conversation with his friend James K Baxter, early in this documentary

There was a point there in the later years in Jerusalem, where he actually tried to stop writing. And he couldn't. He could not stop writing. I mean it welled up in him like a sort of mountain spring. He had this almost pressure of creativity coming through him.

– James K Baxter's son John Baxter

He never had a study. He never had a little batch at the bottom of the garden like some other writers have ... We made no concessions to his writing whatsoever. I didn't. The kids didn't.

– James K Baxter's ex wife JC Sturm

He didn't start writing, actual writing, until he was about seven I think. Then he started writing, and he wrote then continuously until he died — without stopping almost.

– James K Baxter's mother Millicent Baxter

Father, I am no minor prophet who imagines the Garden of Eden is to be found among the Māoris. I dread the hardship, difficulty, change, into which I might go. Yet for years I have felt that the way of life I have led — and that many around me lead — is hollow, burdensome in the wrong way, too analytical, too dominated by money and words ... [I] now wish to make a radical change … this thought of Jerusalem is like water in the mouth of a man who has been without it a long time.

– James K Baxter in a letter to Pat Cleary, the Catholic priest at Jerusalem/Hiruhārama

Auckland, even when I'm well stoned on a tab of LSD or Indian grass, you still look to me like an elephant's asshole...

– A quote from one of James K Baxter poem 'Ode to Auckland', at the start of this documentary

In 40 years, I haven't found a cure for being human.

– A quotation from James K Baxter

I've often thought that if I ever wrote my memoirs ... the title would be 'In My Father's Shadow.' It was very hard growing up as the son of James K Baxter.

– John Baxter

No way did he ever set himself up to be a guru. He did on the other hand project a certain image, and that was deliberately done — the long hair, the beard, the bare feet, you know. In those days the way you looked was very important. Short, back and sides and a suit was establishment, and he wanted to make it very clear that he did not subscribe to that...

– James K Baxter's son John Baxter, late in this documentary