Ian Hamilton Finlay Quotes

• Certain gardens are described as retreats when they are really attacks.

  Ian Hamilton Finlay

  Garden, Retreat, Certain

  Ian Hamilton Finlay, Alec Finlay (2012). “Ian Hamilton Finlay: Selections”, p.263, Univ of California Press

  45 Copy quote

• 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 it can be accessible. It is quite straight forward really.

  Ian Hamilton Finlay

  Thinking, Trying, World

  6 Copy quote

• The present order is the disorder of the future.

  Ian Hamilton Finlay

  Order, Disorder

  Ian Hamilton Finlay, Alec Finlay (2012). “Ian Hamilton Finlay: Selections”, p.53, Univ of California Press

  15 Copy quote

• I came to these mediums through having the garden, and of course, people who have designed gardens have always worked in collaboration, and never made their own inscriptions.

  Ian Hamilton Finlay

  Garden, People, Collaboration

  8 Copy quote

• What you compose with is neither here nor there, you compose with words, or you compose with stone plants and trees, or you compose with events; the Sheriff's officer, or whatever.

  Ian Hamilton Finlay

  Tree, Events, Stones

  7 Copy quote

• I am not a modern man, I am just a wee old fashioned one.

  Ian Hamilton Finlay

  Marijuana, Men, Modern

  7 Copy quote

• People have always found me challenging - I don't know why, when I am only being myself. I don't understand why they find me so annoying but they do. It is pity, but that is how it is.

  Ian Hamilton Finlay

  People, Challenges, Annoying

  8 Copy quote

• I am always a beginner. I only try to include different parts of life; the pastoral, the tragic, et cetera.

  Ian Hamilton Finlay

  Past, Trying, Different

  8 Copy quote

• My position is that since the non-secular status of my garden is not recognised by the law; by the world of the public, then the garden can only be private. So, I closed the garden to the public.

  Ian Hamilton Finlay

  Garden, Law, World

  4 Copy quote

• 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 people liked my work.

  Ian Hamilton Finlay

  Mean, Thinking, People

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Order, People, Expectations

  7 Copy quote

• But at the beginning it was clear to me that concrete poetry was peculiarly suited for using in public settings. This was my idea, but of course I never really much got the chance to do it.

  Ian Hamilton Finlay

  Ideas, Chance, Concrete

  7 Copy quote

• But I can only write what the muse allows me to write. I cannot choose, I can only do what I am given, and I feel pleased when I feel close to concrete poetry - still.

  Ian Hamilton Finlay

  Writing, Muse, Given

  7 Copy quote

• For me concrete poetry was a particular way of using language which came out of a particular feeling, and I don't have control over whether this feeling is in me or not.

  Ian Hamilton Finlay

  Feelings, Way, Language

  7 Copy quote

• As a friendly one. I would still like to write concrete poems, but I can only do it sometimes.

  Ian Hamilton Finlay

  Writing, Friendly, Sometimes

  8 Copy quote

• Little Sparta is a garden in the traditional sense. It is perhaps not like other modern gardens, but I think that other times would have had no difficulty with it.

  Ian Hamilton Finlay

  Garden, Thinking, Sparta

  8 Copy quote

• But you have to understand that I consider myself a very modest artist, or whatever, and not of importance really at all - it is quite embarrassing to me to be asked my opinion about things. I am only a wee Scottish poet on the outside of everything.

  Ian Hamilton Finlay

  Artist, Marijuana, Opinion

  8 Copy quote

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