Quotes from the Lesser-Known: Part 11

'Let's start with a brief description of yourself.' 

'I'm Sam. I like to buy useless things. Writer, sort of. Film enthusiast & critic... okay that sounds ridiculously pompous. Scratch that. I like movies. Sometimes have trouble distinguishing real life from, say, television or novels.' 

'If you could live in any other era, what era would that be and why?' 

'Perhaps the '50s. I feel as if I could have been good friends with the average Jack Kerouac or Allen Ginsberg. Or maybe the '60s... Yeah, the '60s. I want to see Johnny Cash & The Beatles & The Sex Pistols. I want to go to Woodstock and, ah hem, accidentally get stoned because honest to goodness, I can't tell a bong from a pretty vase... (laughs). I think I would also find it hard to say no to cute hippies.' 

'(Laughs) So anyway, what do you think inspired you to start writing?' 

'I just couldn't help it.' 

'Explain.' 

'Well, first of all, I started doing it because apparently I was pretty good at it. Good grades in English compositions, prizes at writing competitions, all that jazz. But then I realised it just felt good... I could string words together and lay it out on a page and people would read it and feel... (long pause) changed. I find that the love of writing always stems from reading. Once you have that love for reading, words & poems & stories flow out of you uncontrollably, whether you want it to or not.'

Samantha T. 20

Communications major & fiction-writer