Michael On
Michael On
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Perhaps life is actually more confusing and unknowable to an adult than a child, but grown-ups have learned to deceive themselves and act as if they understand what's going on; and some are elected to high office on the basis of their ability to create this impression.
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Write because you love it and not because it is something that you think you should do. Always write about something or somebody you know about - something that you feel deeply and passionately about. Never try and force it.
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It is really important that focusing on things such as spelling, punctuation, grammar and handwriting doesn't inhibit the creative flow. When I was at school there was a huge focus on copying and testing and it put me off words and stories for years.
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The big relationships you make in your life are with those that you love and if things do go wrong then it's a source of great pain and that lasts.
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The most important thing is to live an interesting life. Keep your eyes, ears and heart open. Talk to people and visit interesting places, and don't forget to ask questions. To be a writer you need to drink in the world around you so it's always there in your head.
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War continues to divide people, to change them forever, and I write about it both because I want people to understand the absolute futility of war, the 'pity of war' as Wilfred Owen called it.
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Something I learn every time I stand in front of a bunch of children, I learn never, never to underestimate them or patronise them.
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Paying more heed to the lessons of the past might teach us to be a little more cautious about some of the political decisions taken today.
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Linear thinking typifies a highly developed industry. It starts to get these patterns built into it somehow. I'm not sure how that happens, but certainly you take a look at dinosaurs.
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There's a certain logic to systems, and that logic is fairly self-evident. It's very straightforward, usually. It might take a little research, it might take a little bit of industry to prize it out, but it's there to be seen.
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You arrive at Formula One being very skeptical, how far can your talent deal with all this, and then you understand those guys are human and pretty reasonable, and finally succeeding in winning your first race, in circumstance as such, it was just an amazing moment.
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The natural inclination in all humans is to posit a force, a spirit, outside of us. That tendency toward superstitious magical thinking is just built into our nature.
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In my experience, people are usually fired for reasons having to do with budgetary constraints, incompetence or not fulfilling the terms of a contract.
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Being deeply knowledgeable on one subject narrows one's focus and increases confidence, but it also blurs dissenting views until they are no longer visible, thereby transforming data collection into bias confirmation and morphing self-deception into self-assurance.