Simon Van Booy
Simon Van Booy
Simon Van Booy is a British-American writer who lives in the United States. He grew up in rural Wales, but has lived in Kentucky, Paris, Athens, New York City and the Hamptons. Love Begins in Winter won the 2009 Frank O'Connor International Short Story Award...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionWriter
distance love-is thinking
I think living with the absence of someone we love is like living in front of a mountain from which a person - a speck in the distance, on some distance ridge - is perpetually waving.
thinking faces language
I think music is what language once aspired to be. Music allows us to face God on our own terms because it reaches beyond life.
book thinking should
I read books because I love them, not because I think I should read them.
acceptance thinking rejection
I think we keep these moments of rejection and acceptance very close. I think we carry them always, like cracked shells from which a part of us once hatched.
memories disappointment thinking
I think people would be happier if they admitted things more often. In a sense we are all prisoners of some memory, or fear, or disappointment - we are all defined by something we can’t change.
genuinely people trying
The most frustrating part of trying to direct everything is not that it alienates you from people who genuinely want to help, but that it's actually impossible.
hard work
When I'm doing something, I do work hard at it.
supportive
Both my parents were very supportive of me in whatever I wanted to do.
art dedicate ensuring life longevity museums public save surgeons themselves trying works york
Like surgeons trying to save a life, the conservators and preservers at New York City museums dedicate themselves to ensuring the longevity of works of art for public view.
death eventually love simply taken value
Everything that we love will, at some point, be taken away from us. If I think about everyone I love eventually being taken away from me by death, or simply by getting lost from each other in the world, it makes me value them much more now.
bit fill
When you give something up, you need to fill the space where it used to be, and you understand the landscape in yourself a bit more.
expressed fails life needs
There are times in life when language fails us, when everything that needs to be said can be expressed only by saying nothing at all.
scribbling
I was always a writer, by which I mean I was always scribbling away, doing something with pen and paper.
ageing blessing body change feet generally natural neutral regarded self-esteem size won
Shoes are a neutral blessing for us because feet generally aren't regarded as a place where the battle for self-esteem is won or lost. Feet don't change size when the body does through the natural ageing process.