In the '80s, the world I was living in wasn't this world of consumption. There wasn't that much to buy, really. Actually I'm still struck by that. There's not an awful lot of stuff I want. Somebody quotes Diogenes, who's walking around saying, "How many things there are in the marketplace of which Diogenes has no need." I always feel that. Except of course when you're living in Venice, California and you see all these lovely houses!
Geoff DyerForeign governments are going to be poring through all these Donald Trump tweets looking for - to try and discern what it means for foreign policy.
Geoff DyerThese days any self-respecting exhibition of nude photos has to have pornographically explicit images to prove that they are works of art.
Geoff DyerThe one thing that you can say about the new Cabinet Donald Trump is putting together. That seems to be one of the coherent themes. They're very, very skeptical about Iran.
Geoff DyerThe only distinction I'd make is between film and telly, I guess. "Film," "movies," and "cinema" are all synonyms as far as I'm concerned; but telly is different. It's just a plodding we've-done-this-scene, we've-done-that-scene and it never becomes this new other thing.
Geoff DyerBeware of clichรฉs. Not just the ยญclichรฉs that Martin Amis is at war with. There are clichรฉs of response as well as expression. There are clichรฉs of observation and of thought - even of conception. Many novels, even quite a few adequately written ones, are ยญclichรฉs of form which conform to clichรฉs of expectation.
Geoff Dyer