Quotes by John Scott

“In my books I might hold the mirror to my own face. If others would like to borrow the mirror, theyre welcome. The books arent there to accuse others - merely to raise issues and keep the debates alive.”

“It is better the law should be certain, than that every Judge should speculate upon improvements in it”

“It seems we are capable of immense love and loyalty, and as capable of deceit and atrocity. Its probably this shocking ambivalence that makes us unique.”

“If I had the luxury of working as a full time writer, I think you would see novels appearing on a much more regular, and frequent, basis.”

“These days - with the decline of the traditional churches - Im concerned about where we obtain some form of moral direction.”

“The true experimenters are there but no-one hears about them - the critical/review system tends to concentrate on the handful of major writers and their promising successors; bookshops tend not to sell them; publishers dont promote them. Its the same fate as has befallen poetry.”

“The Architect is just one of a series of works which examine the confrontation of innocence and experience, illustrating the complex ethics of power that exist between reader and writer, critic and artist, the human and the divine.”

“Poetry is a double-edged sword. You learn to use language at its most intense - but this is far too intense for prose fiction. Ive been teaching myself to progressively strip the poetry away - the bulk of The Architect is told in very simple prose.”

“My work is known by too few people for me to be remembered as a writer - that is, beyond those dedicated souls (bless them) who have followed the oeuvre through its various stages. To be realistic, when they and the last of my friends have died, I doubt I shall be remembered at all.”

“The older I get, the more I seek to use a plain prose style, concentrating more on story.”

Until you see the cross as that which is done _by_ you, you will never appreciate that it is done _for_ you.