I'm boring. My beliefs are neither here nor there.
Never stop paying attention to things. Never make your mind up finally. Do not hold beliefs.
In novels in general - and also on the television - we do live in a world where bodies is what we are. We do not talk about the spirit or the soul, and there is a sense that we no longer talk about beliefs, either Freudian or Marxist.
Customs form us all, our thoughts, our morals, our most fixed beliefs; are consequences of our place of birth.
We look at the world and see what we have learned to believe is there. We have been conditioned to expect... but, as photographers, we must learn to relax our beliefs.
One of the guiding beliefs of our consuming age is that we are all free and independent individuals. That we can choose to do pretty much what we want, and if we can't, then it's bad. But at the same time, co-existing alongside this, there is a completely different, parallel universe where we all seem meekly to do what those in power tell us to do.
Being a magician taught me how powerful the element of surprise can be. In each book, I've tried to work that in - an unexpected twist in a story that reveals an insight, a counter intuitive study that turns your beliefs upside-down.
I connected to this idea of faith and spirituality and religion and Christianity being a very strong crux of who I am at the core and how a lot of what we think and believe is based around our spiritual beliefs.
As I grew up, I began to discover a little bit about the situation of black people in America and experienced an immediate empathy with the victims of such senseless discrimination. Because although the Turks were never slaves, they were regarded as enemies within Europe because of their Muslim beliefs.
My parents told us how they felt but never imposed their beliefs on us, although I appreciate I got a healthy sense of democracy from them.
