John Burnside
John Burnside
John Burnsideis a Scottish writer, born in Dunfermline. He is one of only two poetsto have won both the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Forward Poetry Prize for the same book...
NationalityScottish
ProfessionWriter
Date of Birth19 March 1955
rather term
I don't like the term 'mental illness.' I'd rather just say 'mad.' Just like I always say 'loony bin,' not 'mental hospital.'
art courses loved three
I always wanted to be a painter. I loved painting. I went on three different art courses but had no talent whatsoever.
art bedroom house lived picture posters visits
Growing up, I lived in a house without art: no picture books on the shelves, no visits to museums, no posters on the bedroom wall.
For 10 years, I gave away my possessions every year and moved on to a new place.
characters nicer people time
Every time I write a book, I think how I could be doing it better to please people - a nicer book with nicer characters - but I just can't.
attractive beyond exist happiness nature
As attractive as it is, the idea that nature can exist beyond our dangerous 'instinct for happiness' is never the whole story.
consumed felt
As a child, I was consumed with a near-obsessive curiosity about what the world felt like for other creatures.
europe northern seems time
Andoya is in a different world, set at the northern edge of Europe in what seems to be a time and weather of its own.
deny man warmth
A man was defined, in my father's circles, by what he could bear, the pain he could shrug off, the warmth or comfort he could deny himself.
believe
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.
century disappoint forests great landscapes rivers
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.
areas electricity enormous gas projects
Worldwide, enormous areas of peatland are still being lost to agricultural development, drainage schemes, overgrazing, and exploitation-based infrastructure development projects such as roads, electricity pylons, telephone masts and gas pipelines.
collapse common continued human insects knowledge less population
It is common knowledge now that we depend on insects for our continued existence; that, without key pollinators, the human population would collapse in less than a decade.
best form hard hits wind
Sometimes, when the wind hits hard and icicles form on the sea cliffs, we can all come together - and at those times, we are at our best.