John Lanchester Quotes

Scientifically, information is a choice - a yes-or-no choice. In a broader sense, information is everything that informs our world - writing, painting, music, money.

Money is a kind of poetry.

When money gets too far away from actual, physical, real equity and property it gets too abstract and too distantly derived and then suddenly it's not worth anything anymore. And the same is true of language.

I have nothing to say, I am saying it, and that is poetry.

People often complain that music is too ambiguous, that what they should think when they hear it is so unclear, whereas everyone understands words. With me, it is exactly the opposite, and not only with regard to an entire speech but also with individual words.

Every day we should hear at least one little song, read one good poem, see one exquisite picture, and, if possible, speak a few sensible words.

Poetry is a matter of life, not just a matter of language.

The gold coin is spent.

I think poetry is as old as language, and both come out of the same thing - an effort to try to express something that is inexpressible.

Songs are all poetry, and they don't make any sense.

Look at Bob Dylan: his voice is not a great sound, but it gets the idea across... and that is what's really important.

I'm a big fan of lyrics - lyrics are the thing that move me in certain ways.

I see magic in conversation and words, and music is purely speaking to others, isn't it?

Translation is an act of recreation.

I think that's what poets try to do: They try to sidestep neurology and go straight to meaning.

I think, as human beings, we all have a fundamental mode, a basic way of relating to the rest of reality, and for me, it's always instinctively been about sound making and trying to extract information, grammar, meaning from sound making. That's been my way of navigating reality that's very personal; a painter might say they make marks or look.

Money is the probably the most successful story ever told. It has no objective value... but then you have these master storytellers: the big bankers, the finance ministers... and they come, and they tell a very convincing story.

Stories that can be told through language and words don't need to be filmed.

When the public doesn't understand me, it's a battle. So when I choose words, I choose them for their musicality, rhythm, and sense, and I choose the right dialect to express that.

Poetry is what is gained in translation.

Writing and rewriting are a constant search for what it is one is saying.

Poetry contains philosophy as the soul contains reason.

Literature exists inside the language. It's made of words.

Nowadays what isn't worth saying is sung.