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John Burnside Quotes
John Burnside Quotes
John Burnside
Scottish
Writer
Born:
Mar 19
,
1955
Great
Life
Me
Think
Time
World
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Clearly, any well-kept garden will be a source of pleasure in the summer months; in the bleak urban midwinter, however, there are few activities more likely to energise the spirit than a botanical walk.
John Burnside
Garden
Walk
Will
Few
Summer
Months
Pleasure
Spirit
More
Bleak
Clearly
Likely
However
Source
Than
Any
Urban
Activities
The son of a Fife mining town sledder of coal-bings, bottle-forager, and picture-house troglodyte, I was decidedly urban and knew little about native fauna, other than the handful of birds I saw on trips to the beach or Sunday walks.
John Burnside
Son
Sunday
Walks
Other
Birds
Saw
Mining
About
Trips
Beach
Knew
Town
Handful
Than
Native
Decidedly
Urban
Little
Fife
One of the most beautiful objects I have ever seen was a Yupik wolf mask, made in Nunivak in around 1890.
John Burnside
Beautiful
Most Beautiful
Made
Seen
Mask
Wolf
Objects
Most
Around
Ever
This is a truth that should be repeated like a mantra: to have any chance of a ful - filling life, we require not only clean air and a steady climate, but also an abundance of meadows and woodlands, rivers and oceans, teeming with life and the mass existence of other living creatures.
John Burnside
Life
Truth
Living
Teeming
Other
Air
Steady
Only
Clean
Clean Air
Rivers
Abundance
Mass
Like
Also
Climate
Oceans
Repeated
Existence
Any
Meadows
Require
Should
Mantra
Filling
Creatures
Living Creatures
Chance
High Alpine meadows, like their near relatives prairie, desert and certain varieties of wetland, teach us to consider the world from a fresh perspective, to open our eyes and take account of what we have missed, reminding us that, in spite of our emphasis on the visual in everyday speech, we see so very little of the world.
John Burnside
Eyes
World
Perspective
Relatives
Everyday
Consider
Our
High
Visual
See
Spite
Take
Open
Emphasis
Reminding
Missed
Like
Fresh
Prairie
Very
Account
Meadows
Little
Us
Certain
Teach
Desert
Near
Speech
In time, we will have to recognise that it is not 'nature' that we need to protect, but ourselves, and we can only do this by abandoning the old, grandiose, profit-seeking schemes so beloved of our masters and learning to till the soil, live to scale, and live within our means.
John Burnside
Time
Nature
Learning
Old
Soil
Will
Live
Our
Recognise
Scale
Ourselves
Abandoning
Only
Schemes
Protect
Masters
Within
Till
Grandiose
Means
Beloved
Need
Our ancestors went to the woods to find fuel; they set snares there for birds and gathered nuts and fungi.
John Burnside
Birds
Our
Nuts
Ancestors
Find
Snare
Woods
Fuel
Set
Gathered
The poem builds in my mind and sits there, as if in a register, until the poem, or a piece of a longer poem, is finished enough to write down. I can hold several lines in my head for quite some time, but as soon as they are written down, the register clears, as it were, and I have to work with what is on the paper.
John Burnside
Work
Time
Mind
Finished
Down
Enough
Paper
Several
Some
Poem
Write
Written
Written Down
Head
Soon
Longer
Clears
Piece
Until
Builds
Were
Lines
Quite
Quite Some Time
Hold
Register
Usually, I would mistrust a book if it took that long to write. Usually, if it isn't done in two years, I suspect there's something wrong and throw it away.
John Burnside
Book
Long
Took
Would
Something
Throw
Write
Wrong
Mistrust
Years
Suspect
Done
Away
Two
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.
John Burnside
Believe
Others
Mad
See
Someone
Sees
He
Person
Really
Who
I don't like the term 'mental illness.' I'd rather just say 'mad.' Just like I always say 'loony bin,' not 'mental hospital.'
John Burnside
Say
Mad
Mental
Rather
Mental Illness
Hospital
Term
Like
Loony
Always
Just
Illness
Bin
I know that the only reason American landscapes sometimes disappoint me is that, just a century before I was born, the great rivers and prairies and wild forests still existed. And they were sublime.
John Burnside
Great
Me
Sometimes
Before
Wild
Born
Only
Rivers
Disappoint
Know
Prairie
Still
Were
Existed
Sublime
Forests
American
Just
Century
Landscapes
Reason
When you have a child, you think about your personal history and what you offer them as a larger narrative, and I realised I knew nothing about my father's circumstances other than what he'd told me.
John Burnside
Me
History
You
Father
Nothing
Think
Other
Circumstances
About
He
Knew
Narrative
Offer
Than
Child
Personal
Realised
Them
Your
Larger
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.
John Burnside
Me
Father
Tough
Big
Heroic
Later
Saw
Fearful
Guy
Only
Tough Guy
Proportion
He
Almost
How
Child
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.
John Burnside
Life
Love
People
Writing
Heroes
Long
Feelings
Big
Statements
Consist
Recognise
Rather
Qualifications
Proust
Fiction
James
Fiction Writing
Sentences
Who
Henry
Henry James
I really like to try my hand at everything, and I think it's probably dangerous to let oneself be pigeon-holed, not necessarily by other people, but in one's own mind.
John Burnside
People
Dangerous
Try
Mind
Own
Think
Other
Everything
Oneself
Like
Pigeon-Holed
Hand
Really
Necessarily
No more John Burnside quotes
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