If you let them come for your milk and say nothing, next they will come for your apples, and before you know it, they come for your freedom, your life, and no amount of bleating will stop them.

"And then I realised, geez, how dependent I have been on my cellphone. But I should confess, you know, after the first day, I felt liberated."

Ballard's trick, or technique, or whatever you want to call it, is deceptively simple — observation, which gives the impression (especially with hindsight) of being extrapolation.

"The vast majority of novels, including those with explicit scenes, use standard black ink. This keeps production costs down and follows the established norms of the publishing industry."

"If you're making a statement, artistically, then when you're making that statement, as far as you're concerned, it's an absolute."

Does it really matter what accent an actor uses to play a character, or does it not?

The only thing that should ever be described as “emerging” is The Very Hungry Caterpillar out of his chrysalis.

Oh, how I loathe that word — relevant! — and the noun that accompanies it — relevance! I encounter them both a lot in the cultural sector, and they give me the ick.

What better way of challenging these unhelpful feelings than by taking my clothes off in front a room full of strangers?

In the space of thirty-six words, they have consolidated everything I'm going to keep reminding myself to do in 2025.

What does it mean to be a “professional” writer? Is it that you devote lots of your time and effort to writing? Or that you get paid for writing?

In order to say yes to one thing, you have to say no to another. That’s how time is protected. That’s how the art gets made. But it starts with you, saying yes to yourself, for yourself.

It can be hard enough sometimes to find the right words to express yourself in your primary language - and it takes even more energy and courage to try doing it in a language you may have learned alongside, or much later in life than, acquiring your first.

It seems fairly commonly accepted that if an artist - or more specifically, a writer - is to produce good output, they must make sure to absorb good input as well. By which is usually meant, if you want to be a writer who writes, you also need to be a writer who reads. This once led me to make a terrible mistake when I was teaching, and I have gone to great pains to ensure I never made it again.