Latest Jonathan Meades Quotes from Interviews

Quotes about:

• I don't know about virtual world, I think it's more a kind of parallel world. I think the advantages and disadvantages of technology are hugely exaggerated. It doesn't make that much difference. Sure if you've got a mobile phone, you use that over your landline. But I think that life goes on and we absorb stuff.

  Jonathan Meades

  Technology, Thinking, Over You

  Source: thequietus.com

• For the most part, French cities are much better preserved and looked after than British cities, because the bourgeoisie, the people who run the cities, have always lived centrally, which has only recently begun to happen in big cities in England. Traditionally in England, people who had any money would live out in the suburbs. Now, increasingly, people with money live in the cities, but this has changed only in the last 20 or so years.

  Jonathan Meades

  Running, People, Changed

  Source: thequietus.com

• As primitive as digital can be, there is nothing automatic in the methods I use, it's all basically done by hand. I know nothing about computers. I don't like computers. I use them for writing because I have to. I have never had a conversation about computers in my life.

  Jonathan Meades

  Writing, Done, Computer

  Source: thequietus.com

• While I'm sure people in Britain have money worries, they don't have them like the French do. The French, however much money they have, are worried. They're a very stressed people. It seems to be a very essential component of the national psyche.

  Jonathan Meades

  Worry, People, Stressed

  Source: thequietus.com

• I don't see any point in having a public service broadcaster which attempts to compete with the commercial sector. Obviously part of its remit is to entertain, but entertainment doesn't necessarily mean scraping the bottom of the barrel and appealing to the very lowest common denominator.

  Jonathan Meades

  Mean, Bottom Of The Barrel, Entertainment

  Source: thequietus.com

• I think the French agonise more about being French, I don't think English think about being English that much. I think the Scottish think about being Scottish and the Welsh think about being Welsh, but the English don't really care. But the French think about it all the time, it's an absolute preoccupation.

  Jonathan Meades

  Thinking, Care, Scottish

  Source: thequietus.com

• There is a tradition of television which isn't dross and stands up. Betjeman's programmes, which were made for 2/6d with one man and a cine camera, were amazing to watch because he was such a great talker.

  Jonathan Meades

  Men, Television, Cameras

  Source: thequietus.com

• I think television is a medium which has the potential to do great things but has been traduced by these... terrible people who rise through the ranks.

  Jonathan Meades

  Thinking, People, Television

  Source: thequietus.com

• At any point in the world's history most architecture is going to be bad but I think there's been a collective mentality since the late Conservative years - the end of Thatcher/start of Major and certainly continued throughout New Labour and continuing now - that new is necessarily better, so there is this neophilia which isn't the vanguard of progress, it's just the vanguard of the construction industry enjoying itself.

  Jonathan Meades

  Thinking, Construction Industry, Years

  Source: thequietus.com

• One doesn't mind adverse criticism so long as it isn't stupid.

  Jonathan Meades

  Stupid, Long, Mind

  Source: thequietus.com

• I'm not against architecture per se, I'm just against bad architecture.

  Jonathan Meades

  Architecture

  Source: thequietus.com

• I'm a very, very unreckless person. I mean, I look left, I look right, I look left, I look right, then I repeat the process and then I decide not to cross the road at the last minute.

  Jonathan Meades

  Mean, Looks, Lasts

  Source: thequietus.com

• As a driver I have come to believe that the person just in front of me and the person just behind me are always just about to do something really stupid. Tense is not the right word, but I am very hyper-aware of such things.

  Jonathan Meades

  Stupid, Believe, Tense

  Source: thequietus.com

• Going on things like rollercoasters is not really up my street I guess. I don't feel like I need to do stunts. I'm too scared and I don't think it's my job.

  Jonathan Meades

  Jobs, Thinking, Needs

  Source: thequietus.com

• Vertigo doesn't apply in planes for some reason. You think it's some kind of magic and you don't know how it's keeping you up, but when you're on a cliff top it's a different matter.

  Jonathan Meades

  Thinking, Magic, Different

  Source: thequietus.com

• I like extremely effeminate dogs like terriers or schnauzers. I make an exception for giant schnauzers and big poodles. Basically, I like dogs which can be dyed day-glo colours.

  Jonathan Meades

  Dog, Giants, Poodles

  Source: thequietus.com

• Conversion requires a subtler mind. Architects don't like it, architects want to create their own landmark buildings so that people a few years hence will say, 'Oh, that building there is being knocked down, who did that one?'

  Jonathan Meades

  Years, People, Mind

  Source: thequietus.com

• In creating a building, architects do think they're making the world a better place. And then they hope to make the world an even better place by making another thing which will be even bigger than the last thing... and it is part of the pathology of being an architect to believe thus, and they do believe it, despite all the evidence to the contrary.

  Jonathan Meades

  Believe, Thinking, Creating

  Source: thequietus.com

• Brummies run themselves down, they're very self-deprecating. Whereas Yorkshire people certainly aren't.

  Jonathan Meades

  Running, Self, People

  Source: thequietus.com

• The construction industry likes nothing more than a blank canvas onto which they can impose a brand new building, because that way they can make more money.

  Jonathan Meades

  Construction Industry, Way, Likes

  Source: thequietus.com

• You always have to find something to say about the subject and in seven cases out of ten there is nothing to say.

  Jonathan Meades

  Seven, Cases, Subjects

  Source: thequietus.com

• I like irrational things. I like scenarios where I can think, 'It would be great if at this point we could do x.' And there doesn't have to be a reason for 'x'.

  Jonathan Meades

  Thinking, Would Be, Reason

  Source: thequietus.com

• I don't think things necessarily should have a meaning. If stuff has a meaning then why do [writing] about it? If you're trying to say, 'Tall buildings are great' why not just leave it at that: "Tall buildings are great."

  Jonathan Meades

  Writing, Thinking, Should Have

  Source: thequietus.com

• I think that cheap music often does make you dream more than more serious music, whether that's serious music by Beethoven or Miles Davis or Pink Floyd... if the Floyd ever did serious music, which I seriously doubt.

  Jonathan Meades

  Dream, Thinking, Doubt

  Source: thequietus.com

• I like looking at the countryside as well as anyone... a little countryside goes a long way, but it's almost like the DNA of a civilisation is in its cities.

  Jonathan Meades

  Dna, Cities, Long

  Source: thequietus.com