Scottish - Writer | March 19, 1955 -
Andoya is in a different world, set at the northern edge of Europe in what seems to be a time and weather of its own.
John Burnside
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I think humans have to learn a new way of dwelling on this earth. A way of living with their companions: animals, plants and fish.
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My poems tend to be more celebratory and lyrical, and the novels so far pretty dark. Poetry doesn't seem to me to be an appropriate tool for exploring that.
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I'm interested in the way language is used to navigate the world around us.
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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.
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I'm an insomniac, so my perfect reader is probably another insomniac.
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'Moby-Dick' really threw me. I read it when I was 14 and my best friends were books. It changed the way I looked at the world.
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I went for a walk in the Arctic Circle without map or compass. Fortunately, I was only lost for hours, not days.
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I always wanted to be a painter. I loved painting. I went on three different art courses but had no talent whatsoever.
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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.
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Growing up, I learnt to think, 'Let's make it a big night tonight, as you never know what's going to happen next.' So now I have enough, I take too much; when I get the chance to have a fine dinner, I will. And it's had an effect on my health.
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'The Asylum Dance' was written after I'd moved back to Scotland and was a response to moving to my old home area of Fife.
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