There Are So Many Characters Whizzing Around Inside My Head, It's Like Looney Tunes. But As Soon As I've Finished Writing About Them, I Completely Forget Who They Are.
I Don't Know If I Have A Voice Of My Own. I Don't See Me Being An Important Person With Something To Say. I Haven't. I've Got Nothing To Say. My Opinion Is Of No Consequence Or Value.
In 'the Plato Papers' I Wanted To Get Another Perspective On The Present Moment By Extrapolating Into The Distant Future. So In That Sense, There's A Definite Similarity Of Purpose Between A Book Set In The Future And A Book Set In The Past.
The 16th-century Theatre Witnessed The Particularly English Manifestation Of 'the History Play.' There Can Be No Doubt That Shakespeare's Presentations Of 'henry V' And 'richard Iii' Have Been Incalculably More Influential Than Any More Sober Historical Study.
Oh, I Just Tend To Believe In Things When I'm Writing Them. For Instance, When I Was Writing 'doctor Dee,' I Believed In Magic. And When I Wrote 'hawksmoor' I Believed In Psychic Geography. But As Soon As I Type The Last Full Stop, I'm Back To Being A Complete Blank Again.
None Of My Books Has Been Ever In My Head; After They're Finished, They Go. It's Like Being A Sort Of Medium; You Just Grab It When It's There Then Just Release It When It's Time To Go. There's A Lot Of Instinct, Not Planning.
I Enjoyed Reading And Learning At School, And At University I Enjoyed Extending My Reading And Learning. Once I Left Cambridge, I Went To Yale As A Fellow. I Spent Two Years There. After That, George Gale Made Me Literary Editor Of 'the Spectator.
I Have Always Believed That The Material World Is Governed By Nonmaterial Sources, So That In That Sense 'english Music' Is An Exercise In The Spiritual As Well As The Material. I Have Always Been Attracted To The Gothic And Spiritual Imagination, And I've Always Been Interested In Visionaries.
It's Only Recently That We've Discovered That The Artist's Inner Self Is Somehow More Important Than The Public World. I'm Happier To Create Exterior Pieces For The World Rather Than To Express Something I Deeply Feel Or Wish To Say.
I Wanted To Be A Poet When I Was 20; I Had No Interest In Fiction Or Biography And Precious Little Interest In History, But Those Three Elements In My Life Have Become The Most Important.
When I Was A Child I Wanted To Be Pope. My Greatest Disappointment Is Missing Out On That. I Also Wanted To Be A Tap Dancer But I Never Fulfilled That Ambition Either.
