Writing a novel is one of those modern rites of passage, I think, that lead us from an innocent world of contentment, drunkenness, and good humor, to a state of chronic edginess and the perpetual scanning of bank statements. J. G. Ballard More Quotes by J. G. Ballard More Quotes From J. G. Ballard If I don't write, I begin to feel unsettled and uneasy, as I gather people do who are not allowed to dream. J. G. Ballard dream writing people Fiction is a branch of neurology J. G. Ballard neurology branches fiction All you do is get on and start pedaling . . . J. G. Ballard Any fool can write a novel but it takes real genius to sell it. J. G. Ballard genius real writing Medicine was certainly intended to be a career. I wanted to become a psychiatrist, an adolescent ambition which, of course, is fulfilled by many psychiatrists. J. G. Ballard medicine careers ambition Our lives today are not conducted in linear terms. They are much more quantified; a stream of random events is taking place. J. G. Ballard linear events today I accepted that a new kind of hate had emerged, silent and disciplined, a racism tempered by loyalty cards and PIN numbers. Shopping was now the model for all human behaviour, drained of emotion and anger. J. G. Ballard shopping loyalty hate I feel that the surrealists have created a series of valid external landscapes which have their direct correspondences within our own minds. J. G. Ballard landscape mind feels I define Inner Space as an imaginary realm in which on the one hand the outer world of reality, and on the other the inner world of the mind meet and merge. Now, in the landscapes of the surrealist painters, for example, one sees the regions of Inner Space; and increasingly I believe that we will encounter in film and literature scenes which are neither solely realistic nor fantastic. In a sense, it will be a movement in the interzone between both spheres. J. G. Ballard believe hands reality Consumerism is so weird. Its a sort of conspiracy we collude in. Youd think shoppers spending their hard-earned cash would be highly critical. You know that the manufacturers are trying to have you on. J. G. Ballard would-be trying thinking Enlightened legislation or enlightened social activity of whatever kind, does play into the hands of people with agendas of their own. If you legalize euthanasia, you provide a field day for people who like killing other people. J. G. Ballard killing-others play hands A car crash harnesses elements of eroticism, aggression, desire, speed, drama, kinesthetic factors, the stylizing of motion, consumer goods, status - all these in one event. I myself see the car crash as a tremendous sexual event really: a liberation of human and machine libido (if there is such a thing). J. G. Ballard car desire drama During the 1960s, the Shanghai of my childhood seemed a portent of the media cities of the future, dominated by advertising and mass circulation newspapers and swept by unpredictable violence. J. G. Ballard childhood media cities So he left the lagoon and entered the jungle again, within a few days was completely lost, following the lagoons southward through the increasing rain and heat, attacked by alligators and giant bats, a second Adam searching for the forgotten paradises of the reborn Sun. J. G. Ballard bats giants rain I suspect that many of the great cultural shifts that prepare the way for political change are largely aesthetic. A Buick radiator grille is as much a political statement as a Rolls Royce radiator grille, one enshrining a machine aesthetic driven by a populist optimism, the other enshrining a hierarchical and exclusive social order. J. G. Ballard optimism political order The enormous energy of the twentieth century, enough to drive the planet into a new orbit around a happier star, was being expended to maintain this immense motionless pause. J. G. Ballard orbit stars energy Yet she felt an impostor, and already the mask had begun to bite into her face. J. G. Ballard mask bites faces It's true that I have very little idea what I shall be writing next, but at the same time I have a powerful premonition of everything that lies ahead of me, even ten years ahead. J. G. Ballard powerful writing lying The future is going to be boring. The suburbanisation of the planet will continue, and the suburbanisation of the soul will follow soon after. J. G. Ballard planets boring soul The functional freedom that anybody can buy a gun and go out and murder a lot of people at a McDonald's is prevalent, yes. But through the effects of TV and interactive video systems and so forth, we'll also have the freedom to pretend to be a mass murderer for the evening. I've seen descriptions of advanced TV systems in which a simulation of reality is computer controlledthe TV viewer of the future will wear a special helmet. You'll no longer be an external spectator to fiction created by others, but an active participant in your own fantasies/dramas. J. G. Ballard gun drama reality
