Do quote me ...

Aha! I am listening to the AA Gill Desert Island Discs repeat, and I have heard the quote I wanted to share but somehow forgot. He is talking about his writing - he suffers from quite severe dyslexia, and so his writing is actually spoken, dictated initially to himself and then down the phone to a copy taker for publication.

"words on a page are dried speech - they are desiccated speech ... you should be able to add your own head, and what you get back is a voice"

I just love that image.

I tried to record it but the sound quality on BBC Radio Player this morning is quite horrific ... so I've abandoned that.

Another little jem - more in the 'too clever for words' style I attribute to AA Gill ...

"I avoid clichés like the plague"

From now on I shall cease avoiding AA Gill like the plague, and instead make an effort to rehydrate his words with the gentle, self-effacing, curious tone that I heard in his interview. I suspect he will read quite differently now that I know that Pulp - Common People is one of his Desert Island Discs :)