I was recently in the lead role in a Melbourne Theatre Company production, playing an English professor of natural sciences, an atheist, whose son renounces his law career to become an Anglican priest.  That decision is met with scorn and derision, and his subsequent death in a terrorist bombing changes the lives of the family forever.

I once asked a young small business owner, who you'd think might have a passing interest in political promises, who he'd vote for in an upcoming election. " Whoever I've never heard of," he replied, " because they've told me the fewest lies."

I love reading. I could happily live without most things, but I couldn't bear to give up books. I've devoured them since I was a small child, and I'm eternally grateful to my mother for passing on her passion for the written word. She read to me constantly, took me to the library every week, and gave me boxes of books for Christmas.

I remember vividly how you felt during the teenage years, how you looked at the world and how hard much of it seemed. There are so many simple, basic things that I wish you had known then, because ignorance is a terrible inhibitor.

Speaking to a friend recently about how much we were looking forward to summer, she mentioned that she always associated the sound of cicadas chirrupping with the warmer months. I had an instant vision of myself, aged about 8 or 9, out in our backyard, in the dark, armed with my Dad's garden shovel . . .

If one more shop assistant responds to a request for a flat white with the word "awesome", I might be tempted to say something mildly inappropriate in reply. If my choice of coffee is awesome, how do you describe an extraordinary storm, or a stunning sunset or the scaling of Everest?

One of my bugbears is the standard of information and entertainment served up by mainstream media. If you'd just arrived from Mars and switched on the telly to suss out the locals, you'd get the impression there were only three kinds of women - young, thin, orange-skinned, wearing high heels and brainless ...

My esteemed editor requested something on the subject of retirement.  I've racked my feeble brain trying to oblige. But the notion of retiring from work doesn't mean anything to me - because I'm an actor.

We know intellectually that craving more "stuff" is wrong, but so deeply ingrained are the habits of consumerism that we still drool over catalogues. While much of the world starves, we employ declutterers . . .

Noni contributes her thoughts on society and the issues of the day