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
commercial critical heroes interests save
We do not need to be heroes to save the world; all we need is humility, a critical view of the commercial and political interests of those who would mislead us into wrongdoing, and a sense of wonder.
incredibly interests
Irrationality interests me more than anything: sometimes it's very dangerous, but it can be incredibly beautiful.
consist fiction henry heroes james life love people proust rather recognise
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.
ancient case clear egyptians hawks speed symbols
In many traditions, hawks are sacred: Apollo's messengers for the Greeks, sun symbols for the ancient Egyptians and, in the case of the Lakota Sioux, embodiments of clear vision, speed and single-minded dedication.
australian berlin careful collection devoted finer leading order tropical
The Botanischer Garten in Berlin has one of Europe's finer winter trails, leading in careful order from glasshouses devoted to African-American and Australian desert species, through a fine collection of tropical plants, and on to the orchid house.
navigate
I'm interested in the way language is used to navigate the world around us.
home nature offers
If nature offers no home, then we must make a home one way or another. The only question is how.
favour gardeners larger perhaps straight understood wildness work
I have never understood why so many gardeners favour straight lines and narrow, regulated borders; perhaps they think wildness could work only in a larger space.
answer asked cathedral catholic confident devout intrigued raised
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.
encounter passed realise takes
It takes a true encounter to realise that real animals, wild animals, have all but passed from our lives.
encounters gravity joyful level partner possible teaches work
What the flamingo teaches a child, at that subliminal level where animal encounters work, is that gravity is not just a limitation, but also a possible partner in an intriguing, potentially joyful game.
desk organic poems poetry tend
With fiction, I tend to get to my desk and start writing. Poetry I write in my head, often while walking, so that my poems have an organic quality, hopefully.
argued human
With human beings it could be argued that all music-making is, in essence, grounded in improvisation.
family found left moved quickly ten west work
When I was ten years old, my family left a cold, damp prefab in West Fife and moved to Corby, Northamptonshire, where my father quickly found work at what was then the Stewarts & Lloyds steelworks.