“Politicians often like to suggest that their policies come about through objective thinking, but if you look at British fascists, for example, what you see - what I see - is a group of people coming to the decisions they came to because something happened to them when they were nine-years-old, or because of some deep prejudice that formed in them subsequent to that.” PeopleThinkingDecisionPolicyPoliticianPrejudice Author:Ned Beauman
“It seems to me that the basic plot of all historical novels is a romance swept aside by history.” RomanceNovelHistorical Author:Ned Beauman
“Most romances aren't swept aside by big historical events. Most romances in the history of the world fall apart because of other, smaller happenings. History can sometimes be in the background, the thing which instead of rupturing your life merely irritates you by pressing itself now and then into the foreground.” WorldSometimesRomanceFallHistoricalNow And ThenFalling ApartWorld History Author:Ned Beauman
“There are probably a couple of things I'd never write about until everyone I know is dead. And then there's other stuff which nobody would want to read a book about anyway.” WritingBookCouple Author:Ned Beauman
“I guess the main thing I definitely don't enjoy is having a job which involves selling things. You become an author because you think you're good at writing. Not because you love to promote yourself. I enjoy some of it and I've had a really fun few years so basically I have nothing to complain about. But what I don't like is the thought that it's going to go on for the rest of my life.” ThinkingWritingFunEnjoyComplainingSelling Author:Ned Beauman
“Statistically, you don't have much chance of becoming president if you're not tall and fairly handsome or at least conventional-looking.” PresidentChance Author:Ned Beauman
“It's not surprising to me that books ended up playing a central role in my life, but it is somewhat mysterious that poetry did.” BookMysterious Author:Campbell McGrath
“Our lives are so dominated by financial concerns - paying the rent - and consumer choices - what sort of detergent to buy at Costco - that larger issues get subsumed into economic ones. Not just social justice, but basic issues of faith and meaning.” ChoicesJusticeEconomicConcernSocial JusticeFinancial Author:Campbell McGrath
“A poem employs both the sound and the sense of language, it treats words not just as signifiers but as a plastic medium of artistic expression.” LanguageArtistic Author:Campbell McGrath
“Poems are language turned into art; sound and sense matter; they can be as long or longer than The Odyssey or as short or shorter than a haiku. Not very helpful.” LongArtLanguageHelpfulHaikuOdyssey Author:Campbell McGrath