“Words are the first step we take to turn intentions into reality”, declares American author Chuck Palahniuk. “All our vows, – he explains, – and declarations and signatures: Words. And ceremonies where we speak words (pledges and promises) in front of our peers. Again, that’s how human beings develop their dreams into a physical reality”. […]
“If you don’t allow yourself to write characters who do disagreeable things–if you only allow yourself to write about what you would be glad for your readers to imitate in real life–then you’re pretty much constrained to characters who help little old ladies across the street and rescue cats from trees,” points out Lionel Shriver, […]
From the TMO Archive – the legendary Greg Dulli talks to TMO about the Afghan Whigs, Nina Simone, and Pathos in songwriting.
In the year 2000, during restoration work, a rare and important mural was uncovered at the communal fountain of the Tuscan town of Massa Marittima. It was not necessarily a welcome surprise, at least at first, as this painting from the Middle Ages depicted a tree covered with phalluses. “At first when the painting was […]
“And who’s gonna raise a hand When all we were taught to do was dance Who’ll be able to stand After this avalanche” Thea Gilmore – Avalanche If Pete Townshend felt provoked, by an overbearing post-war generation, to write My Generation exhorting his elders to “just fade away”, Thea Gilmore’s ire seems aimed as much, […]
Women and rebellion is something McCafferty knows a lot about. Having grown up in Derry, she was at the centre of Northern Ireland’s civil rights movement for equal votes, homes and jobs for Catholics. McCafferty was there on Bloody Sunday in 1972, when British soldiers shot dead 14 marchers in Derry.
Jim Crace is both flattered and amused that he’s become the subject of Academic study. “I’m flattered. I’d rather that there were academic books about me than there weren’t any – he says, in a down to earth tone before continuing to outline one of the stranger Academic analyses of his work – a Japanese […]
Some people seem to take pleasure in boasting about how long it takes them to drive to work. Like the Yorkshire men in the Monty Python sketch, they get up half an hour before going to bed the night before in order to arrive at work on time in the morning. They live, for the […]
“Thank God she hasn't (her son did!)” says Suad Amiry, with characteristic humour when asked if her mother-in-law has read her critically acclaimed Ramallah diaries, entitled Sharon and my Mother-in-Law. The book arose out of a form of email therapy, as Amir tried to stay sane cooped up with her Mother-in-Law, with Sharon's army on […]
“But then or now, decent underwear or none, wild women never could hide their innocence – a kind of pity kitty hopefulness that their prince was on his way. Especially the tough ones with their box cutters and dirty language, or the glossy ones with two-seated cars and a pocket-book full of dope. Even the […]
