"The same sort of thing happened in my dispute with the National Trust book: Follies: A National Trus..." — Ian Hamilton Finlay

What you compose with is neither here nor there, you compose with words, or you compose with stone plants and trees, or you compose with events; the Sheriff's officer, or whatever.

I am always a beginner. I only try to include different parts of life; the pastoral, the tragic, et cetera.

I have often said that just as the French revolution, for instance, understood itself through antiquity, I think our time can be understood through the French revolution. It is quite a natural process to use other times to understand your own time.

I came to these mediums through having the garden, and of course, people who have designed gardens have always worked in collaboration, and never made their own inscriptions.