“If you construct a room in paint, you haunt it. Your life rests in every stroke. So paint only the rooms that you can bear to occupy forever. Or paint the stars instead.” ArtStarsRoomsCreativityPaintingHaunt Book:The Ecliptic Source: The Ecliptic
“When you're young, you think life is a string of choices. It's either you choose this door or the other door, or jump out of the window. You don't realise that most of what'll happen to you is because of other people's choices. There's a door already opened for you, so you walk straight through it, and you wonder how you wound up on the fire escape. That's life, I'm telling you. Don't bother getting older. Art's the only way I've ever had of making any sense of it.” LifeArtChoicesLuckAgeing Book:Seascraper Source: Seascraper
“Oscar was raised to believe that if he stayed in his room reading about made up worlds it meant he didn't appreciate the life he had, the possessions his parents had worked hard for, like the TV and the video and the newly turfed back garden.” BooksAppreciateTv Book:The Bellwether Revivals Source: The Bellwether Revivals
“The closer they get to Broughton, the more the sand dunes bunch together on the collar of the road. He'd wander out here as a lad, carefree, and tumble down the slopes for hours with kids from other towns he'd never see again. Back then, he wouldn't give much thought to smashed-up bottles that were dumped there, or the damage he could do an ankle treading in a burrow. He's forgotten that simplicity, that joy. It's true what Mr Acheson is saying about the world and all its noise, but mostfolk seem to carry on undaunted, just like children gaily sliding down a sand dune. When did he stop sliding for fear of broken glass and bloody knees?” InspirationalGrowing UpReflection Book:Seascraper Source: Seascraper
“My theory is that hope is a form of madness. A benevolent one, sure, but madness all the same. Like an irrational superstition--broken mirrors and so forth--hope's not based on any kind of logic, it's just unfettered optimism, grounded in nothing but faith in things beyond our control.” Life LessonsHopeSuperstition Book:The Bellwether Revivals Source: The Bellwether Revivals
“I'm tired of retracing my own footsteps for a hint of who I used to be, it's undignified.” LifeReflectionDeepSoulsearching Book:The Ecliptic Source: The Ecliptic
“The way we envision the stars is by imagining they're attached to a giant invisible sphere surrounding the earth. It is a total fiction, really - just a construction we came up with to help us get our heads around the complexity of it all ... The ecliptic, put simply is the plane of the earth's orbit around the sun. But since we all live here on earth, we observe the sun to be moving along this plane instead. Why? Because what would be the point of looking at things from the perspective of the sun? That's no use to anyone ... Ergo, it's an imaginary circle, as it's only a part of our human construction of the cosmos.” SunImaginaryEcliptic Book:The Ecliptic Source: The Ecliptic
“If you don't have the ambition to be the very best at what you do, then what's the point? If you aim for greatness but keep missing -- fine. At least you had the guts to aim. There's honour in failing that way. But there's nothing honourable about settling for mediocrity.” AmbitionStriving For GreatnessEcliptic Book:The Ecliptic Source: The Ecliptic
“Actually, I think it's the opposite. We know each other so well there isn't anything left to say. Sometimes it's nice just sitting here with you all, thinking. It's only best friends who can be comfortable with silence, wouldn't you say?” FriendshipBest Friends Book:The Bellwether Revivals Source: The Bellwether Revivals
“He waves back keenly, but it feels inadequate. They've become two strangers pantomiming fondness for each other. Perhaps that's all they ever were.” FriendshipPerformanceStrangers Book:Seascraper Source: Seascraper
“Edgar backs off with his cases, heading for the front steps while the horse begins its ponderous turn out of the car park; and when he finds that Edgar is still standing there to wave him off, he knows they've passed beyond the territory of strangers, into something more like friendship.” FriendshipGoodbyeStrangers Book:Seascraper Source: Seascraper