One minute I was playing chess and doing maths all the time, the next I had been rerouted into more 'normal' girls' activities: reading, writing stories and worrying about my clothes. Scarlett Thomas More Quotes by Scarlett Thomas More Quotes From Scarlett Thomas Routine kills creative thought. Scarlett Thomas creative-thought routine creative Homeopathy seemed . . . both mathematical and poetic. Scarlett Thomas homeopathy mathematical poetic People make events into stories. Stories give events meaning. Scarlett Thomas events giving people Some writers, notably Anton Chekov, argue that all characters must be admirable, because once we've looked at anyone deeply enough and understood their motivation we must identify with them rather than judge them. Scarlett Thomas motivation judging character I always got a bit pissed off with those broadsheet sceptics who make their living being passionately angry about homeopathy, God, synchronicity or whatever, because it's as if they can't get past their emotions, and in their rage they become as faith-driven as the beliefs they criticise. I always said they give scientists a bad name. After all, science has to be about asking unthinkable questions, not closing down debate. Scarlett Thomas names giving past If something wants to be a story, it will be. Scarlett Thomas ifs stories want For other people, love is like some rare orchid that can only grow in one place under a certain set of conditions. For me it's like bindweed. It grows with no encouragement at all, under any conditions, and just strangles everything else. Scarlett Thomas orchids encouragement love-is What folly takes light through ether to each eye from every horizon. Scarlett Thomas horizon light eye I wonder if the reason I tend to say yes to everything is because I deeply believe that I can survive anything. Scarlett Thomas reason wonder believe But I quite like the way you can talk about science without necessarily using mathematics, but using metaphors instead. Scarlett Thomas metaphor mathematics way I think about stories and their logic and wonder if there can be any such thing as simply "there is a book. Scarlett Thomas stories book thinking Real life is physical. Give me books instead. Give me the invisibility of the contents of books, the thoughts, the ideas, the images. Let me become part of a book. . . . an intertextual being: a book cyborg, or, considering that books aren't cybernetic, perhaps a bibliorg. Scarlett Thomas real book ideas One of the biggest problems for beginning writers is this need to over-explain. Scarlett Thomas beginning-writers problem needs Most people would look at an animal in a cage and instinctively feel that it should be set free. . . . It's a dangerous world out there, filled with predators. . . . What would you prefer? A comfortable, safe, warm, cosy life in a cage, or an uncertain life of freedom. Scarlett Thomas dangerous-world animal people The sky was the colour of sad weddings. Scarlett Thomas colour sky In real life nothing means anything. Stuff happens and there just is no structure. Scarlett Thomas stuff-happens real mean Sometimes you have to trust grownups, perhaps more so when they are not there to actually supervise you. Scarlett Thomas grownups sometimes Homeopaths argue that water has a memory. Scarlett Thomas arguing water memories So if we're all quarks and electrons ..." he begins. What?" We could make love and it would be nothing more than quarks and electrons rubbing together." Better than that," I say. "Nothing really 'rubs together' in the microscopic world. Matter never really touches other matter, so we could make love without any of our atoms touching at all. Remember that electrons sit on the outside of atoms, repelling other electrons. So we could make love and actually repel each other at the same time. Scarlett Thomas touching making-love together You tell them what a happy ending consists of, which is always individual success. You tell them that nothing irrational exists in this world, which is a lie. You tell them that conflict only exists only to be neatly resolved, and that everyone who is poor wants to be rich, and everyone who is ill wants to get better, and everyone who gets involved in crime comes to a bad end, and that love should be pure. You tell them that despite all this they are special, that the world revolves around them. Scarlett Thomas get-better special lying
