David Marr’s extraordinary career as a journalist, broadcaster and biographer, has seen him write about the most interesting and controversial people in Australian history.

From Kevin Rudd and George Pell to John Howard and Bill Henson, his work he says has been about trying to explain the "contradictions" of his subjects.

As part of our ongoing series of profiles, David joined Tina Quinn in studio talk about his upbringing in the conservative Australia of the 1960s, coming to grips with being gay at a time when homosexuality was still criminalized, the "halcyon" days of journalism at the National Times, and his much revered biographies of Chief Justice Sir Garfield Barwick and the world renowned Australian writer Patrick White.

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