Long before I was a writer, when I was just a haphazard reader and a dreamer of stories, I learnt about an influential book by Harold Bloom. 'The Anxiety of Influence', published in 1973 when I was five years old,… — Andrew O'Hagan Copy Share Image
I don't believe in the meteoric culture of anxiety, generally. Obviously, some people have it, some people are crippled by it, but most of the novelists I've ever known are in love with influence. They thrive on it. — Andrew O'Hagan Copy Share Image
The first rule of travel is that you should always go with someone you love, which is why I travel alone. — Andrew O'Hagan Copy Share Image
You'll find that no pride is greater than the pride that comes with being thick. Britain is filled with people who are really proud… — Andrew O'Hagan Copy Share Image
I always knew I would come to London. I loved Glasgow, but it seemed filled with echoes of my parents' lives, and sometimes you… — Andrew O'Hagan Copy Share Image
When you grow up by the sea, you spend a good deal of time looking at the horizon. You wonder what on Earth the… — Andrew O'Hagan Copy Share Image
“But she was half in love with chaos... With all her yearning for the ordinary life, she was born to admire outsiders. You could… — Andrew O'Hagan Copy Share Image
Long before I was a writer, when I was just a haphazard reader and a dreamer of stories, I learnt about an influential book… — Andrew O'Hagan Copy Share Image
Fans of football and fans of nationhood have a similar zeal. Read the fanzines: their contributors could find a needle-sized diss in a haystack… — Andrew O'Hagan Copy Share Image
Writing a novel is an act of self-annihilation as much as self-discovery. You can kill whole appetites and flood whole depths while plumbing them,… — Andrew O'Hagan Copy Share Image
It's not a crime not to know yourself. It's not a crime to send life away. It's just a shame. — Andrew O'Hagan Copy Share Image
Art you can flush down the loo means nothing to me, even were the loo to be selected by Marcel Duchamp — Andrew O'Hagan Copy Share Image
