Pollyanna McIntosh Quotes

Like my father, I would never as a child throw anything away, keeping old toys, electric motors and bits of broken machines under my bed in what I called my Box of Useful Things.

I wanted to own a junk yard as a child, you know. I used to smash cars and think, 'Oh, my God, there's been an accident.' My mother would take me to junk yards, and I look back on that and I think, 'Wow, that was really loving.'

One man's trash is another man's treasure is a third man's raw materials for their planet-buster earthquake machine.

I was brought up to reuse things.

Getting silver and gold out of junk machinery was quick to be learnt by others.

I went to junkyards, abandoned car lots. I asked supermarkets for the big jugs they put pig guts in, to make cabinets for my bass speakers.

My father loved antique shops and shows, and quite a bit of my childhood involved outings to dim, dusty places packed with cast-off treasures.

I had always suspected that one could build an entire house from what went into the landfill, and, sure enough, it's true.

Saturdays are set for antique shops. Williamsburg in Brooklyn has some good ones. I get in there and start meddling around with dusty boxes and rickety, worn-in stuff. I like it when I find something with someone else's name on it.

We had a thing there where you could turn in - it was some sort of recycling program - the bottle caps of RC Cola. You'd turn in 12 of them, and you'd get a ticket to see a movie. That's how I started going to the movies. Running around the neighborhood looking for bottle caps. We were like little scavengers.

When I was a kid, I really wanted a metal detector for Christmas, convinced I was going to find buried treasure and could retire at 12. Santa Claus brought me one, but sadly, that treasure was never realized. It's amazing how many bottle caps you have to dig up. But to be honest, that dream is still alive.

There is no such thing as waste. It is just a question of whether we know how to use something or not.

I work with things left over from other things.

I can remember when pants were pants. You wore them for twenty years, then you cut them down for pan scrubs. Or quilts.

Your garbage, transformed, is your gift.

Reusing and recycling our materials is the most important thing we can do.

I really love secondhand clothes. It's fun to turn them into something new.

I'll always cling to these little girl dresses at vintage shops, and I can never wear them because they're so tiny!

I threw my TV out years ago.

There is no 'recycle too much.' That's an oxymoron.

At primary school, we would pick up plastic petals on the way home to make flowers. Now you might call it child labour, but we did it for pocket money.

Cheap electronics are not built to be repaired. They're just used and then discarded.

I remember very vividly a little plaid dress on which my father sewed all these hanging beads, little horses and stuff. It was my favourite thing ever. I had it when I was four, and I kept it until I was 12, when I gave it to the little neighbour girl. For years, I regretted giving it to her, even though I had no use for it.

It's so surreal for us to be playing at Tynemouth Castle. It couldn't be much closer to home. I've got so many mad stories of us all running around here as kids, and it's mental that we're going to be playing at an actual castle!

I'd take garbage, and I'd glue them together and create inventions.