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John Burnside Quotes
John Burnside Quotes
John Burnside
Scottish
Writer
Born:
Mar 19
,
1955
Great
Life
Me
Think
Time
World
Related authors:
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Armando Iannucci
Frances Wright
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Robert Louis Stevenson
Steven Moffat
'The Gardener' is more than a marvellous collection of images by a master photographer.
John Burnside
Master
Collection
Photographer
More
Marvellous
Than
Gardener
Images
The conventional, and painfully artificial, separation of the human realm from the natural other is bound to perish, albeit over a period of time, until we are obliged to learn how to cultivate our gardens under the most demanding conditions.
John Burnside
Time
Natural
Demanding
Separation
Other
Our
Obliged
Bound
Over
Most
Until
Period
Learn
Perish
How
Cultivate
Conditions
Artificial
Human
Conventional
Realm
Painfully
Gardens
Albeit
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
As a child, I was always intrigued by the question: what is it that distinguishes a city from a town? Is it size? Population? Location? When I asked grown-ups, the confident answer was that a city has to have a cathedral - which, to a child raised in a devout Catholic setting, made sense.
John Burnside
Made
Sense
Setting
Location
Distinguishes
Intrigued
City
Town
Cathedral
Catholic
Devout
Answer
Always
Question
Child
Confident
Size
Which
Asked
Population
Grown-Ups
Raised
The woods were a boon; all too often, the forest offered danger and mystery. Yet it could be liberating. If you entered that wild place on its own terms, you might be accorded wisdom.
John Burnside
Wisdom
You
Own
Too
Wild
Danger
Liberating
Boon
Entered
Could
Mystery
Terms
Were
Accorded
Forest
Offered
Often
Woods
Place
Might
Given the right information to help them decide, people will opt for conditions that benefit our creaturely neighbours, even where they have no particular interest in larks or cuckoo wasps - because those conditions benefit us.
John Burnside
People
Will
Benefit
Our
Those
Neighbours
Given
Particular
Because
Cuckoo
Conditions
Where
Decide
Information
Interest
Them
Us
Help
Even
Wasps
Right
The older I get, the happier my childhood becomes.
John Burnside
Older
Becomes
Get
Childhood
Happier
I don't want to suggest that matrimony was necessarily a tragic affair - some of our neighbours' marriages seemed quite functional, if somewhat routine; nevertheless, in the workaday world, it is wedlock that is most likely to offer the occasion for life-threatening disappointment.
John Burnside
Disappointment
World
Our
Neighbours
Marriages
Some
Seemed
Wedlock
Life-Threatening
Somewhat
Nevertheless
Most
Likely
Occasion
Affair
Tragic
Matrimony
Offer
Quite
Want
Functional
Routine
Necessarily
Suggest
Sometimes, though only in my most unguarded moments, I can still think of Annette Winters as my first love. At fifteen, she was tall, slender, very dark: an intelligent, sly girl possessed of what I think of now, though I didn't think of then, as a kind of debatable beauty.
John Burnside
Love
Dark
Sometimes
Girl
First
Beauty
Think
Slender
Possessed
Though
Kind
Sly
Only
Winters
Most
First Love
She
Tall
Still
Debatable
Very
Intelligent
Fifteen
Then
Moments
Now
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
My poems tend to be more celebratory and lyrical, and the novels so far pretty dark. Poetry doesn't seem to me to be an appropriate tool for exploring that.
John Burnside
Me
Dark
Tool
Lyrical
Appropriate
Pretty
Seem
Poems
More
Poetry
Tend
Far
Exploring
Novels
I'm interested in the way language is used to navigate the world around us.
John Burnside
World
Language
Way
Around
Interested
Us
Used
Navigate
'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.
John Burnside
Best
Me
World
Changed
Books
Way
Threw
Looked
Read
Were
Friends
Really
I always wanted to be a painter. I loved painting. I went on three different art courses but had no talent whatsoever.
John Burnside
Art
Three
Painting
No Talent
Had
Talent
Courses
Always
Whatsoever
Different
Wanted
Loved
Painter
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
Growing up, I learnt to think, 'Let's make it a big night tonight, as you never know what's going to happen next.' So now I have enough, I take too much; when I get the chance to have a fine dinner, I will. And it's had an effect on my health.
John Burnside
Health
You
Too Much
Will
Dinner
Big
Think
Too
Enough
Fine
Take
Never
Had
Know
Make
Learnt
Effect
Up
Get
Going
Happen
Much
Next
Growing
Growing Up
Now
Night
Chance
Tonight
'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.
John Burnside
Home
Old
Dance
Back
Asylum
Response
Area
Written
Scotland
Moved
After
Moving
Old Home
Fife
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
The way I mainly use the Internet is keeping in touch with poets that live far away. My main interest is contemporary American poets and some Spanish language poets, and I keep in touch with their work through either their websites or email.
John Burnside
Work
Language
Internet
Websites
Live
Email
Way
Some
Touch
Poets
Through
Main
Mainly
Contemporary
American
Either
Interest
Spanish
Far
Far Away
Use
Keep
Away
Keeping
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.
John Burnside
Time
Speak
Way
Spent
We Cannot
Find
About
Poetry
Talking
Lot
Trying
Whereof
Cannot
Realised
As a child, I was consumed with a near-obsessive curiosity about what the world felt like for other creatures.
John Burnside
World
Other
About
Consumed
Like
Felt
Child
Curiosity
Creatures
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