John Burnside Quotes

I think that America has an obsession with history, really.

There is a difference between remembrance of history and reverence of it.

My work as a whole is about excavating and shining a light on pieces of history that not only need to be seen and heard, but that can also add to the conversation about what's going on now.

We've got to map all of our ancient history before it's gone because, let's face it, if we don't have a common heritage to share, something to get excited about, then what are we living for?

What's the shelf life of a 1931 movie? If it still exists, there will always be film buffs and a niche audience who will want to see it. But in terms of people even understanding in common usage, some of the words we use to describe these movies, I don't know how long that's going to last.

History not used is nothing, for all intellectual life is action, like practical life, and if you don't use the stuff well, it might as well be dead.

I don't think you should ever run from history. You should learn from it and embrace it.

Monuments are for the living, not the dead.

History isn’t just what happened before we came on the scene. We are a part of history..

… history is that which transforms documents into monuments

History is an instrument of the most genuine patriotic spirit

History is simply man’s desperate bid to give substance to his most visionary dreams.

Without a generation of civilized people to study history, to preserve its records, to absorb its lessons and relate them to its own problems, history, too, would lose its meaning.

One should live with history round one.

I was always pretty interested in my history. Not just the history of the Caribbean, the history of my people, but all walks of life.

I work with history because I come from a country that has a tremendous thirst for reality.

In our own case, we don't consider the loss of a monastery or a monument the end of our entire way of life. If one monastery is destroyed, sometimes it happens.

Although I write to entertain, and try to keep my work free of didacticism, I do have a rather passionate belief in our need to be connected to - and to learn from - history.

From the very beginning, history wasn't content simply to be nostalgic fairytales; it wanted to make you think.

The very concept of history implies the scholar and the reader. Without a generation of civilized people to study history, to preserve its records, to absorb its lessons and relate them to its own problems, history, too, would lose its meaning.

A society that does not correctly interpret and appreciate its past cannot understand its present fortunes and adversities and can be caught unawares in a fast changing world.

In Paris, there has to be a presence. History becomes the most interesting when it's compared to the present. I mean there's a whole group of people that want to build new buildings that look like old buildings.

Societies need heroes. So we travel to places where the revisionists cannot dismantle the great.

Most of us, I think, are conscious of history swirling around outside the door, but when we're in the house, we're usually not dealing with history. We're not thinking about history.

I think history is collective memories. In writing, I'm using my own memory, and I'm using my collective memory.