With 'All Is Song,' I tried to construct a very traditional narrative that pulls no tricks. Samantha Harvey More Quotes by Samantha Harvey More Quotes From Samantha Harvey We use the same possessive pronouns for everything, but do we own our lives or sisters or husbands in the same way we own our shoes? Do we own any of them at all? Samantha Harvey own everything shoes way We see book-burning as a crime against humanity: it's intolerable because books represent a kind of freedom to us. Samantha Harvey see crime freedom humanity I'm just fascinated by the past. You know, both by the possibilities it holds and by the complete tyranny of it, the way it sort of keeps you in this stranglehold and makes you want things that you no longer have and you can never get back. Samantha Harvey never you way past The past is open to all sorts of magical possibilities because it can't be verified. It's as we make it, so it seems to be entirely free. It seems to be completely up for grabs. But of course it's not. Samantha Harvey open possibilities free past It's quite difficult to write about female friendship without it seeming to be a very niche subject. It's a difficult balance. Samantha Harvey without difficult balance friendship There are many ways to go about a story. And if you give yourself some formal constraints, it just makes the job so much - maybe 'easier' isn't the right word, but because you know your boundaries, you can just play within those boundaries much more, so it's much more fun to do. Samantha Harvey yourself job you fun What I always liked about Socrates was his insistence on questioning things for the sake of reaching some sort of clarity - even if it is only clarity about the gaps in our knowledge. Samantha Harvey some things always knowledge I think we often live at a surface level, and that ends up with us in a lot of difficulty because we just function on assumptions and secondhand knowledge. Samantha Harvey us live think knowledge One of the things the novel can do is address big questions in ways that are accessible to people. It's not that I want to teach people, but these are the things that interest me, and this is my medium for exploring ideas, and I think the potential of novels to do that is massive. Samantha Harvey think me people ideas Socrates, after all, could be an intensely annoying man, all the time questioning passers-by until they became exasperated. Samantha Harvey man questioning annoying time With twenty six letters, you can create anything you like - any person, any world, any place, any emotion. And they are so potent, so powerful, and at the same time, they're marks on the page, and that's all. There's nothing else to them. Samantha Harvey place you time world Common perceptions of female friendships are morning coffees discussing children, bags, periods and agreeing about the misdemeanours of men... mild, soft, nurturing relationships. Samantha Harvey relationships morning men children Being published is a bit like being entered into a race you don't even want to run, but, once running, can't help but not want to lose. Samantha Harvey lose you race want One of the most unsettling things about 'Monologue' is its long silences, in which the man sits alone, staring into the middle distance, without grip of his narrative, lost to the past. Samantha Harvey alone man long past Monologues are self-verifying and self-referencing, a world in their own right, one with its own internal logic that strengthens with reiteration. Samantha Harvey right own logic world As the U.S., much of Europe, and the U.K. shift toward the political right, the rhetoric grows more insular, defensive, and protective. Samantha Harvey right more political europe Down on the ground, we seem to do anything but make lengthy, robust monologues. We can communicate in an instant almost anywhere. Gone is the slow old letter - itself a monologue, a sort of considered performance of best self - and in its place is the e-mail, the text, the SMS, the tweet. Samantha Harvey down place best self I conceived 'All Is Song' as a modernised, loosely interpreted version of Socrates's life. Samantha Harvey socrates version song life When there's change, and people fear things, they become more dogmatic in their views. They lash out: you can see it in the media, scapegoating and penal sentencing. Samantha Harvey you change fear people The Japanese have different words for love. To them, it's plain weird that we love spaghetti and love our children and love our lovers, all with the same word, when surely the thing being described as love is radically different in each case. Samantha Harvey words love-is love children
