{
  "type": "author",
  "site": {
    "name": "Leafy Quotes",
    "language": "en",
    "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com"
  },
  "formats": "Every page has two versions with the same data: JSON (the page address + .json) and markdown (the page address + .md). Append .json or .md to any `url` in this document.",
  "name": "Alasdair Gray",
  "slug": "alasdair-gray",
  "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alasdair-gray",
  "json": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alasdair-gray.json",
  "markdown": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alasdair-gray.md",
  "image": null,
  "quotes_count": 7,
  "books": [
    {
      "title": "Lanark",
      "slug": "lanark",
      "quotes_count": 4,
      "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/canongate/alasdair-gray/lanark_978-18-3885-290-0.jpg",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alasdair-gray/lanark"
    },
    {
      "title": "Unlikely Stories, Mostly",
      "slug": "unlikely-stories-mostly",
      "quotes_count": 3,
      "cover": "https://quivercdn.com/covers/canongate/alasdair-gray/unlikely-stories-mostly_978-18-3885-273-3.jpg",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alasdair-gray/unlikely-stories-mostly"
    }
  ],
  "recent_quotes": [
    {
      "id": "f501ec9f-2025-4302-8c52-021e9d555238",
      "slug": "a-story-can",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alasdair-gray/lanark/a-story-can",
      "text": "A story can always end happily by stopping at a cheerful moment. Of course in nature the only end is death, but death hardly ever happens when people are at their best. That is why we like tragedies. They show men ending energetically with their wits about them and deserving to do it.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "stories",
          "slug": "stories",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/stories"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lanark:_A_Life_in_Four_Books#Quotes",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:57"
    },
    {
      "id": "dda1f57a-a2fe-4250-8c24-f059660af6c7",
      "slug": "art-is-the",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alasdair-gray/lanark/art-is-the",
      "text": "Art is the only work open to people who can't get along with others and still want to be special.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "art",
          "slug": "art",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lanark:_A_Life_in_Four_Books#Quotes",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:57"
    },
    {
      "id": "4318c1cb-c710-4851-9bb4-5ceeead19f71",
      "slug": "people-in-scotland",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alasdair-gray/lanark/people-in-scotland",
      "text": "People in Scotland have a queer idea of the arts. They think you can be an artist in your spare time, though nobody expects you to be a spare-time dustman, engineer, lawyer or brain surgeon.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "art",
          "slug": "art",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/art"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lanark:_A_Life_in_Four_Books#Quotes",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:57"
    },
    {
      "id": "18e8183f-d0f0-4d24-9dc5-667444a7b587",
      "slug": "space-is-infinite",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alasdair-gray/lanark/space-is-infinite",
      "text": "Space is infinite to men without destinations.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "purpose",
          "slug": "purpose",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/purpose"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Lanark:_A_Life_in_Four_Books#Quotes",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-26T07:01:57"
    },
    {
      "id": "b7289925-0494-4bcc-8ef2-3c69e1342a94",
      "slug": "work-as-if-you",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alasdair-gray/unlikely-stories-mostly/work-as-if-you",
      "text": "Work as if you were in the early days of a better nation.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": null,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "work",
          "slug": "work",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/work"
        },
        {
          "name": "hope",
          "slug": "hope",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/hope"
        },
        {
          "name": "homeland",
          "slug": "homeland",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/homeland"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alasdair_Gray#Unlikely_Stories,_Mostly_(1983)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:21"
    },
    {
      "id": "5e8fc7c9-6ef5-4e38-82c7-a514b0e5e0eb",
      "slug": "i-asked-the",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alasdair-gray/unlikely-stories-mostly/i-asked-the",
      "text": "I asked the headmaster of literature, \"Why are there so many headmasters and so few poets? Is it easier for you to train your own kind than ours?\" He said, \"No. The emperor needs all the headmasters he can get. If a quarter of his people were headmasters he would be perfectly happy. But more than two poets would tear his kingdom apart.\"",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 88,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "power",
          "slug": "power",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/power"
        },
        {
          "name": "education",
          "slug": "education",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/education"
        },
        {
          "name": "poetry",
          "slug": "poetry",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poetry"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alasdair_Gray#Unlikely_Stories,_Mostly_(1983)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:21"
    },
    {
      "id": "3168d08f-0522-4090-9f09-1757ce115990",
      "slug": "a-good-poem",
      "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/alasdair-gray/unlikely-stories-mostly/a-good-poem",
      "text": "A good poem is a tautology. It expands one word by adding a number which clarify it, thus making a new word which has never before been spoken. The seed-word is always so ordinary that hardly anyone perceives it. Classical odes grow from and or because, romantic lyrics from but or if. Immature verses expand a personal pronoun ad nauseam, the greatest works bring glory to a common verb.",
      "language": "en",
      "character": null,
      "chapter": null,
      "chapter_parent": null,
      "page": 208,
      "verified": false,
      "original": null,
      "other_languages": [],
      "topics": [
        {
          "name": "poetry",
          "slug": "poetry",
          "url": "https://www.leafyquotes.com/topics/poetry"
        }
      ],
      "source": {
        "name": "Wikiquote",
        "url": "https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Alasdair_Gray#Unlikely_Stories,_Mostly_(1983)",
        "license": {
          "label": "CC BY-SA 4.0",
          "url": "https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/"
        }
      },
      "added_at": "2026-09-25T22:56:21"
    }
  ]
}