John Burnside Quotes
Top 49 wise famous quotes and sayings by John Burnside
John Burnside Famous Quotes & Sayings
Discover top inspirational quotes from John Burnside on Wise Famous Quotes.
Andoya is in a different world, set at the northern edge of Europe in what seems to be a time and weather of its own.
I moved south when I was 11 years old, moved to England. I've lived in all kinds of places, all parts of England.
With human beings it could be argued that all music-making is, in essence, grounded in improvisation.
A mad person isn't someone who sees what isn't there; he's someone who sees what is there but that others can't see. I really believe that.
Growing up, I lived in a house without art: no picture books on the shelves, no visits to museums, no posters on the bedroom wall.
I went for a walk in the Arctic Circle without map or compass. Fortunately, I was only lost for hours, not days.
Thatcherite economic policy was most acutely felt in the coal industry, where tens of thousands of jobs were lost as pits were shut down.
I think humans have to learn a new way of dwelling on this earth. A way of living with their companions: animals, plants and fish.
Every time I write a book, I think how I could be doing it better to please people - a nicer book with nicer characters - but I just can't.
Anyone who has ever stopped to watch a hawk in flight will know that this is one of the natural world's most elegant phenomena.
My editor, Robin Robertson, is one of this country's finest poets, so I listen to him when he offers advice.
Our ancestors went to the woods to find fuel; they set snares there for birds and gathered nuts and fungi.
'Moby-Dick' really threw me. I read it when I was 14 and my best friends were books. It changed the way I looked at the world.
'The Asylum Dance' was written after I'd moved back to Scotland and was a response to moving to my old home area of Fife.
As a child, I was consumed with a near-obsessive curiosity about what the world felt like for other creatures.
One of the most beautiful objects I have ever seen was a Yupik wolf mask, made in Nunivak in around 1890.
Today, however, she didn't go looking for urchins or broken shells. She simply walked to the end of the earth and stood a while.
It takes a true encounter to realise that real animals, wild animals, have all but passed from our lives.
No one could say it was my choice to kill the twins, any more than it was my decision to bring them into the world.
I realised I'd spent a lot of time in my poetry trying to find a way of talking about that whereof we cannot speak.
A man was defined, in my father's circles, by what he could bear, the pain he could shrug off, the warmth or comfort he could deny himself.
All my life, I have been a celebrant of Halloween. For me, it is the most important day of the year, the turning point in the old pagan calendar.
I don't like the term 'mental illness.' I'd rather just say 'mad.' Just like I always say 'loony bin,' not 'mental hospital.'
The fabric of a garden is determined as much by its textures as by its tonal range and architectural flair.
I always wanted to be a painter. I loved painting. I went on three different art courses but had no talent whatsoever.
Irrationality interests me more than anything: sometimes it's very dangerous, but it can be incredibly beautiful.
My father was this big, tough guy, almost heroic in proportion to me as a child. It was only later that I saw how fearful he was.
The only pleasure in redecorating or moving house comes from stumbling across books that I'd almost forgotten I owned.
He lied all the time even when there was no need to lie [ ... ] He needed a _history_, a sense of self. [Burnside on his father, p. 22]
Sometimes, when the wind hits hard and icicles form on the sea cliffs, we can all come together - and at those times, we are at our best.
As attractive as it is, the idea that nature can exist beyond our dangerous 'instinct for happiness' is never the whole story.
What we should be doing is saving habitats, not single species, no matter what their cuteness factor.
One day I was talking about what I was going to do next, and just found myself announcing it: 'I'm going to write a book about my father.'