John Burnside Quotes
I love long sentences. My big heroes of fiction writing are Henry James and Proust - people who recognise that life doesn't consist of declarative statements, but rather modifications, qualifications and feelings.
Quotes to Explore
-
They don't call it the Internet anymore, they call it cloud computing. I'm no longer resisting the name. Call it what you want.
-
The evidence of a Jewish civilization going back more than two millennia is overwhelmingly borne out in the archaeology of the region. The heritage of the Jews in Palestine is documented.
-
I don't believe that intelligence can be reduced to a number, frankly. But I can see how doing exactly that produces a useful sorting mechanism in our society in order to separate children into categories of promising and doomed. The tests seem arbitrary and without real scientific value and yet have lasting consequences.
-
As a writer, I absorb stories, allow them to churn within my own head and heart - often for years - until I find a way of telling them that fits both my time and temperament.
-
We only have a certain amount of energy for each day. If we use it for the wrong purpose, if we focus on the negative or dwell on whoever hurt us, then we're not going to have the energy we need for the right purposes.
-
Sometimes, whether you like it or not, people elevate you. It's real easy to fall.
-
As a boy, I wanted to be the Peruvian Diego Maradona. Sadly, Peru hasn't made the World Cup since 1982, so I guess I did well to choose something different.
-
Actors don't have real value.
-
I'm happy. I give thanks every morning that I can get up, that I still have my husband with me. I'm extremely grateful. After all, how many 93-year-old cover girls do you know?
-
Sport can bring communities together and can release a lot of pent-up emotions.
-
I've been an atheist since I was nine years old. And my mom is really religious, so we have a strange relationship. But if my mother was right, what would be the reason that the gods could let anything bad happen in the world?
-
I had a guidance counsellor who made me take an aptitude test, and told me I should be a bricklayer.
-
Probably the only way Woody Allen and I are similar is that he has a lot to say about Nietzsche.
-
I've managed to get some beautiful bags. I have a great collection, and so does my mother. My favourite is a purple one by Gucci, which I take everywhere!
-
Perhaps it is of more value to infuriate philosophers than to go along with them.
-
Reading is exercise for our brains in the guise of pleasure. Books give us insight into other people, other cultures. They make us laugh. They make us think. If they are really good, they make us believe that we are better for having read them.
-
I am indebted to the Indian Army, from my birth till now; I have grown and imbibed the indomitable spirit of this fighting force.
-
I guess I've played a lot of failures, which is a Huston quality, I guess. I love losers, though, and have never met anyone who hasn't been one sometime. I'm always looking to understand them, and my father had an extremely keen eye to be able to dissect and bring that forward in the way he told his stories.
-
Always remember this: If you don't attend the funerals of your friends, they will certainly not attend yours.
-
I don't know many better training grounds than being mayor of San Francisco - those were pretty intense years in terms of reporting and scrutiny.
-
Andre Agassi, in his account of becoming an embittered prodigy, seems never to have liked tennis much, except as a vehicle for achievement. The kids who do like life inside the lines can find the flow within that green-and-white geometry.
-
Whether it's a double take or a spit take or an extra-long pause before a reaction or a line, I try to be as cognizant as possible about the technical end of it. So I think the physical stuff works easier for me than maybe for others who are more just going on instinct.
-
I love long sentences. My big heroes of fiction writing are Henry James and Proust - people who recognise that life doesn't consist of declarative statements, but rather modifications, qualifications and feelings.
