From about eight years old I was always making things on the sewing machine. Friends would see me making dresses and costumes and I’d use difficult fabrics such as Lycra and elastic. But you know my dad was creative and my brother is inventive too.
The clan is nothing more than a larger family with its patriarchal chief as the natural head and the union of several clans by intermarriage and voluntary connection constitutes the tribe.
So I did in fact spend two and a half years in the Middlesbrough car park practising skills. But if you spend four or five or six hours a day practising you get better.
I did not wish to take a cabin passage but rather to go before the mast and on the deck of the world for there I could best see the moonlight amid the mountains. I do not wish to go below now.
The act of writing… is the act of trying to understand why my opinion is what it is. And ultimately I think that’s the same experience the reader has when they pick up one of my books.
There is no more difficult art to acquire than the art of observation and for some men it is quite as difficult to record an observation in brief and plain language.
Defoe says that there were a hundred thousand country fellows in his time ready to fight to the death against popery without knowing whether popery was a man or a horse.
For people who are really talented what you don’t say becomes extremely important. You have to judge what to say and what to leave alone so you can let the talent develop.
I played with the same band for years and years and there’s a beauty to having one solid core that you keep exploring. On the other hand it’s nice to throw yourself in different situations where you find out things about your own resources.
I want a car that will last 10 years or longer because I totally hate the process of researching shopping for a new car and then haggling for the price. I wish I could just snap my fingers and my car is there.