Nick Laird - "All writing is political"

Sketch of George Orwell by Ralph Steadman

George Orwell said:

"The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude."

He also said:

"In our age there is no such thing as 'keeping out of politics.' All issues are political issues, and politics itself is a mass of lies, evasions, folly, hatred and schizophrenia."

Northern Irish writer Nick Laird said:

"I think all writing is political. All writing shows a preoccupation with something, whatever that thing might be, and by putting pen to paper you are establishing a hierarchy of some sort—this emotion over that emotion, this memory over that memory, this thought over another. And isn’t that process of establishing a hierarchy on the page a kind of political act?"