However, I don't feel the world is looking over my shoulder when I am working - I never think about this at all. What I think about is trying to make my work pure, and if it is pure then… — Ian Hamilton Finlay Copy Share Image
If the work is pure then you have to think it could be understood. If it is not understood it doesn't mean that your work is not accessible. It doesn't worry me, but, of course, I would be pleased if… — Ian Hamilton Finlay Copy Share Image
I am always a beginner. I only try to include different parts of life; the pastoral, the tragic, et cetera. — Ian Hamilton Finlay Copy Share Image
I have often said that just as the French revolution, for instance, understood itself through antiquity, I think our time can be understood through… — Ian Hamilton Finlay Copy Share Image
But I can only write what the muse allows me to write. I cannot choose, I can only do what I am given, and… — Ian Hamilton Finlay Copy Share Image
But you have to understand that I consider myself a very modest artist, or whatever, and not of importance really at all - it… — Ian Hamilton Finlay Copy Share Image
However, I don't feel the world is looking over my shoulder when I am working - I never think about this at all. What… — Ian Hamilton Finlay Copy Share Image
The same sort of thing happened in my dispute with the National Trust book: Follies: A National Trust Guide, which implied that the only… — Ian Hamilton Finlay Copy Share Image
If the work is pure then you have to think it could be understood. If it is not understood it doesn't mean that your… — Ian Hamilton Finlay Copy Share Image
Certain gardens are described as retreats when they are really attacks. — Ian Hamilton Finlay Copy Share Image
No, I don't make my work in order to challenge or confuse other people's expectations - I only do what I find natural. — Ian Hamilton Finlay Copy Share Image
Little Sparta is a garden in the traditional sense. It is perhaps not like other modern gardens, but I think that other times would… — Ian Hamilton Finlay Copy Share Image
As a friendly one. I would still like to write concrete poems, but I can only do it sometimes. — Ian Hamilton Finlay Copy Share Image
