John Banville Quotes

Toronto has been home to me and my family for almost 5 years. I arrived here from Italy in January 2015 and immediately felt something special.

[Immigrating] didn't burn out my desire to travel, though that can happen. There's nothing like immigration to make you want to just stay put. But what I think of as home is this life between Santo Domingo and the parts of New Jersey and New York City that were my childhood, so in my mind it's like home is all those things combined.

I love clothes, but really I don't have that much to say about skirts. Before I was writing, I went to fashion shows only when the designer was a good friend and I was there to show support.

I had an ethnic preference, if you will, for the warm weather, coming from Chennai. So I finally said, 'Look, can I move to California?' because every time I come here, it would be in the 70s or 80s, and there would be beautiful blue sky and warm.

I made some friends who are still friends, and this is the city of my birth. I love living here when there's a reason to, other than just moving here. I still don't like the winters here, but it's an amazing city and I love it.

Britain, and my hometown, will always be with me wherever I go and whatever I do - but I prefer to live in California.

So people ought to be free to leave here, but there ought to be opportunity for them to come home.

Living in Maryland, I saw that the opportunities were far greater in California than back home.

I've always been really interested in how people's identities are shaped by where they come from and how they want to get away from where they come from.

The four places I've called home in my life have been Lahore, London, New York and California. And I have a very strong tie to each one of those four places.

I do miss Glasgow but Malibu is home now. I love it here and when I do go back to Scotland it takes me a bit of time to acclimatise. I am a spoilt so-and-so. I live in the mountains of Malibu in the most gorgeous house and I phone my mum every day and tell her that I have got bad news - that it is only 70 degrees here.

I love to come to L.A. to visit, and then I like to come to rainy old London because it's home.

I have to put down roots where I decide to stay. It wasn't enough for me to be an expatriate Indian in Canada. If I can't feel that I can make social, political and emotional commitments to a place, I have to find another place.

I live on a plane. I like to visit London. If I had to think where I could live if not Moscow, London would be my first choice, and second would be New York. In Moscow I feel most comfortable. I'm used to four different seasons; it's difficult for people in London to understand. People brought up in Russia like my kids want to play in the snow.

I like to visit L.A., but I wouldn't want to live there.

In Moscow I feel most comfortable. I'm used to four different seasons; it's difficult for people in London to understand. People brought up in Russia like my kids want to play in the snow.

I love England. I don't really like places when they're too hot. It's my Celtic blood.

'Butterfly Mosque' came out of the emails I wrote to family and friends back home after moving to Egypt.

I may like L.A., but I want to know when the seasons are.

I lived in upstate New York until I was ten years old and we moved overseas. I have a lot of nostalgic memories of that part of the world, and I love going back there by writing the Lakeshore books.

I've been lucky enough to be able to choose exactly where I want to live.

I really missed the East Coast. I love living in Hawaii, but I miss the changing of seasons.

For me, a relationship with a place is very fundamental. When you're moving - when you're leaving your life and the place where you've lived on a semi-regular basis - you tend to connect the sense of your entire life to that place that you've left.

I think being bi-continental is something I want to continue. Kuala Lumpur is my home, but L.A. is where I've been able to make the music that I want.

You don't get to choose where you were born; you only get to choose where you live.