Quote #4

I think the twentieth century should have taught us how 'civilisation' is the thinnest of veneers. I was reading something last year where a state torturer said it would only take him about two weeks to 'train' any one of us to willingly do the same job.

More from John Scott

  1. I suppose everything about one's self is recontextualised in an alien environment.
  2. 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.
  3. I have a backlog of novels which I would love to be working on and would be working on if I were not obliged to hold down a full time job.
  4. In my books I might hold the mirror to my own face. If others would like to borrow the mirror, they're welcome. The books aren't there to a…
  5. I don't see myself as experimenting in any conscious way, it's perhaps that certain books require different densities of language.
  6. It seems we are capable of immense love and loyalty, and as capable of deceit and atrocity. It's probably this shocking ambivalence that ma…
  7. 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 follow…
  8. Poetry is a double-edged sword. You learn to use language at its most intense - but this is far too intense for prose fiction. I've been te…

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