Island Dreams Quotes

“teenagers self-isolate from their parents and from their therapists because that’s the only way they can find the space to summon an authentic self from the disorder of their experience.”
― Gavin Francis, Island Dreams: Mapping an Obsession

“The happiness Rousseau felt on St Peter's isle was a consequence of the simplicity of his life there: he had few of his possessions, an abundance of leisure and the conversation of just a handful of others. He used an Italian phrase to describe this kind of happiness: there was a deep joy in far niente - 'doing nothing' - a joy that came more easily on an island that provided some distance from distraction.
"The island curtailed the possibilities of engaging with others, and the connections he felt were all the deeper and more satisfying as a result.
I know men will be careful not to give me back such a sweet refuge when they did not want to leave me there", Rousseau wrote of the island. "But at least they will not prevent me from transporting myself there each day on the wings of my imagination.”
― Gavin Francis, Island Dreams: Mapping an Obsession

“The Scots poet Hugh MacDiarmid believed that it was a mark of distinction to be able to hold two opposing points of view simultaneously.”
― Gavin Francis, Island Dreams: Mapping an Obsession

“By their omissions, all maps leave room for the imagination, and for dreams.”
― Gavin Francis, Island Dreams: Mapping an Obsession