45 J. G. Ballard Quotes for You to Enjoy

J. G. Ballard

British Author

Born: Nov 15, 1930

Died: Apr 19, 2009

Future Me People Reality Think World

Related authors: Dorothy L. Sayers George Eliot George Orwell Ian Fleming James Allen Marcus Buckingham Neil Gaiman Virginia Woolf

Memories have huge staying power, but like dreams, they thrive in the dark, surviving for decades in the deep waters of our minds like shipwrecks on the sea bed. J. G. Ballard

Dreams Memories Dark Thrive Power Waters Our Minds Staying Staying Power Like Bed Huge Surviving Decades Sea Deep

Orwell's '1984' convinced me, rightly or wrongly, that Marxism was only a quantum leap away from tyranny. By contrast, Huxley's 'Brave New World' suggested that the totalitarian systems of the future might be subservient and ingratiating. J. G. Ballard

Future Me World Tyranny Rightly Systems Totalitarian Huxley Only Marxism New Wrongly Leap Quantum Quantum Leap Contrast Brave Subservient Brave New World New World Might Convinced Away Orwell Suggested

Any fool can write a novel but it takes real genius to sell it. J. G. Ballard

Fool Genius Write Takes Real Sell Any Novel

I don't think it's possible to touch people's imagination today by aesthetic means. J. G. Ballard

Today People Think Imagination Possible Touch Aesthetic Means

My room is dominated by the huge painting, which is a copy of 'The Violation' by the Belgian surrealist Paul Delvaux. The original was destroyed during the Blitz in 1940, and I commissioned an artist I know, Brigid Marlin, to make a copy from a photograph. I never stop looking at this painting and its mysterious and beautiful women. J. G. Ballard

Beautiful Women Looking Painting Marlin Destroyed Photograph Mysterious Never Never Stop Know Beautiful Women Make Blitz Surrealist Huge Dominated Commissioned Artist Stop Which Paul Room Original Violation Copy

I would sum up my fear about the future in one word: boring. And that's my one fear: that everything has happened; nothing exciting or new or interesting is ever going to happen again... the future is just going to be a vast, conforming suburb of the soul. J. G. Ballard

Future Soul Fear Word Nothing Sum Everything Would One Word Boring About Vast Exciting New Up Going Just Happen Happened Suburb Again Conforming Interesting Ever

I suspect that many of the great cultural shifts that prepare the way for political change are largely aesthetic. A Buick radiator grille is as much a political statement as a Rolls Royce radiator grille, one enshrining a machine aesthetic driven by a populist optimism, the other enshrining a hierarchical and exclusive social order. J. G. Ballard

Great Change Political Other Statement Way Machine Hierarchical Driven Exclusive Aesthetic Shifts Cultural Optimism Political Statement Suspect Rolls Order Social Much Social Order Many Prepare Populist Largely

I could sum up the future in one word, and that word is 'boring.' The future is going to be boring. J. G. Ballard

Future Word Sum One Word Boring Could Up Going

To my child's eyes, which had seen nothing else, Shanghai was a waking dream where everything I could imagine had already been taken to its extreme. J. G. Ballard

Eyes Seen Nothing Else Everything Extreme Dream Could Shanghai Had Taken Been Waking Child Where Which Imagine

Novelists should be like scientists, dissecting the cadaver. J. G. Ballard

Like Scientists Should Novelists Dissecting

I only realised why I keep living in Shepperton when I returned to China. All the people who moved there had come from places just like Shepperton, and so they built and lived in houses exactly like these. I now know I was drawn here because, on an unconscious level, Shepperton reminds me of Shanghai. J. G. Ballard

Me People Living Drawn Exactly Only Shanghai Had Unconscious Reminds Come Like Know Returned Houses Because Built Just Moved Realised China Places Who Keep Lived Now Why Level Here

The dream of empire died when Shanghai surrendered without a fight. Even at the age of 11 or 12, I knew that no amount of patriotic newsreels would put the Union Jack jigsaw together again. From then on, I was slightly suspicious of all British adults. J. G. Ballard

I think it's terribly important to watch TV. I think there's a sort of minimum number of hours of TV a day you ought to watch, and unless you watch three or four hours of TV a day, you're just closing your eyes to some of the most important sort of stream of consciousness that's going on! J. G. Ballard

Day You Eyes Stream Three Important Think Ought Unless Minimum TV Some Hours Most Terribly Sort Going Closing Just The Most Important Your Four Consciousness Watch Number

At the school I attended, the clergyman who ran the cathedral school in Shanghai would give lines to the boys as a punishment. They expected you to copy out, say, 20 or 30 pages from one of the school texts. But I found that rather than laboriously copying out something from a novel by Charles Dickens, it was easier if I made it up myself. J. G. Ballard

Myself You School Made Ran Say Easier Punishment Out Would Charles Charles Dickens Give Something Rather Shanghai Attended Clergyman Cathedral Boy Lines Dickens Up Texts Than Expected Pages Who Novel Found Copy Copying

I think of science fiction as being part of the great river of imaginative fiction that has flowed through English literature, probably for 400 or 500 years, well predating modern science. J. G. Ballard

Great Science Think Through River Part Well Science Fiction Years Modern Being Fiction Modern Science Literature English English Literature Imaginative

I made a very slatternly mother, notably unkeen on housework, unaware that homes need to be cleaned now and then, and too often to be found with a cigarette in one hand and a drink in the other. J. G. Ballard

Mother Made Too Other Cigarette Unaware Drink Cleaned Housework Hand Very Often Then Found Now Homes Now And Then Need

Science and technology multiply around us. To an increasing extent they dictate the languages in which we speak and think. Either we use those languages, or we remain mute. J. G. Ballard

Technology Science Speak Science And Technology Think Increasing Those Mute Remain Around Dictate Either Which Us Use Languages Multiply Extent

I was born in the city's general hospital on November 15, 1930, and we lived at 31 Amherst Avenue in the western suburbs. It was a magical place. There were receptions at the French Club, race meetings at the Shanghai Racecourse, and various patriotic gatherings at the British Embassy on the Bund, the city's glamorous waterfront area. J. G. Ballard

November Club Avenue Gatherings Waterfront Meetings Embassy City Born Magical General Various Area Hospital Shanghai Glamorous French Were Western Patriotic Place Suburbs Race Amherst Lived British

There are signs, I think, that people aren't satisfied by consumerism: that people resent the fact that the most moral decision in their lives is choosing what colour their next car will be. J. G. Ballard

People Decision Car Will Signs Satisfied Think Moral Fact Colour Consumerism Most Next Choosing Resent Lives

The surrealists, and the modern movement in painting as a whole, seemed to offer a key to the strange postwar world with its threat of nuclear war. The dislocations and ambiguities, in cubism and abstract art as well as the surrealists, reminded me of my childhood in Shanghai. J. G. Ballard

War Abstract Art Art Me Strange World Key Painting Threat Seemed Postwar Shanghai Abstract Reminded Well Cubism Ambiguity Offer Modern Childhood Movement Whole Nuclear Nuclear War

One of the things I took from my wartime experiences was that reality was a stage set... the comfortable day-to-day life, school, the home where one lives and all the rest of it... could be dismantled overnight. J. G. Ballard

Life Home Reality School Rest Stage Took One Of The Things Could Day-To-Day Day-To-Day Life Comfortable Overnight Where Experiences Wartime Lives Things Set

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