People will occasionally ask me if I understand what it's like to be lonely. And the truth is I don't, because for me, solitariness is a blessing, a gift. Me, I get on fine with myself.

Next quotes

• John Burnside:

  I don't like the term 'mental illness.' I'd rather just say 'mad.' Just like I always say 'loony bi

• John Burnside:

  'The Gardener' is more than a marvellous collection of images by a master photographer.

• John Burnside:

  The conventional, and painfully artificial, separation of the human realm from the natural other is

• John Burnside:

  In time, we will have to recognise that it is not 'nature' that we need to protect, but ourselves,

• John Burnside:

  What we should be doing is saving habitats, not single species, no matter what their cuteness facto

• John Burnside:

  Hunted for sport by the rich, then driven from large tracts of its natural habitat by agricultural

• John Burnside:

  I know that the only reason American landscapes sometimes disappoint me is that, just a century bef

• John Burnside:

  As a child, I was always intrigued by the question: what is it that distinguishes a city from a tow

• John Burnside:

  Clearly, any well-kept garden will be a source of pleasure in the summer months; in the bleak urban

• John Burnside:

  The Botanischer Garten in Berlin has one of Europe's finer winter trails, leading in careful order