Andrew O'Hagan
Andrew O'Hagan
aim best beyond class england habits middle people room society themselves version vision waiting
The working class of England today have no vision of society beyond the acquisitive - no version of themselves or their habits as anything other than transitional, on their way up or on their way out. The working class, at best, is a waiting room for people who aim to become middle class if possible.
elderly found full looked loving office people poetry
I had always been literary, in the sense of loving poetry and discovering novels, but I found my voice, as they say, in an office full of elderly people who looked after blind ex-servicemen.
struggle people principles
A good nationalism has to depend on a principle of the common people, on myths of a struggling commonality.
people stranger knows
Always trust strangers, it's the people you know that let you down.
order people creative
As an old creative industry full of cruelty and moral sense, British journalism once flourished on the imperative that people required the truth in order to survive. But people don't require that now. They want sensation and they want it for nothing.
ideas people should
The idea that people in novels should be more sympathetic than people in life simply baffles me.
believe crippled known love novelists people thrive
I don't believe in the meteoric culture of anxiety, generally. Obviously, some people have it, some people are crippled by it, but most of the novelists I've ever known are in love with influence. They thrive on it.
britain filled greater people
You'll find that no pride is greater than the pride that comes with being thick. Britain is filled with people who are really proud of their stupidity.
blank conscience further happening people response soapbox wakes
A theatre is not a blank page for editorial, it is not a soapbox or a Tannoy system: it is a conscience that wakes with what is happening in the space, and wakes further still in response to what people are making of it.
beings business celestial higher knew life ordinary political
When I was very young, I thought the theatre was a place where higher beings went about their celestial business, as if they knew nothing of ordinary life and its political mysteries.
echoes filled knew loved seemed
I always knew I would come to London. I loved Glasgow, but it seemed filled with echoes of my parents' lives, and sometimes you just want a city of your own.
america barack change democracy events extent victory works
Events in America show the extent to which democracy there is fuelled by populism - Barack Obama's victory is a manifestation not of Washington's need for change, but of America's. That is not how democracy works in England.
basic devotion human national nature recall unknowable
When I look back at my childhood on the Ayrshire coast, I recall a basic devotion to the idea that human nature and national character are as unknowable as the weather's rationale.
country near
The characters in 'Be Near Me' come from a genuine place, a Britain that is more than one country and more than one ideal.