- Born
- Died
- Birth nameJames Graham Ballard
- J.G. Ballard was born on November 15, 1930 in Shanghai, China. He was a writer and actor, known for Empire of the Sun (1987), High-Rise (2015) and Crash (1996). He was married to Helen Mary Matthews. He died on April 19, 2009 in London, England, UK.
- SpouseHelen Mary Matthews(1955 - 1964) (her death, 3 children)
- His novel "Crash" (1973) was rejected by a publishing house reader who wrote, "This author is beyond psychiatric help. Do Not Publish!"
- Was revealed that he declined a Commander of the British Empire (CBE) honor for "services to literature" in 2003. He told The Sunday Times, "Thousands of medals are given out in the name of a non-existent empire. It makes us look a laughing stock and encourages deference to the crown. I think it is exploited by politicians and always has been."
- His novel "Empire of the Sun" (1984), which was turned in to a film of the same name in 1987, was semi-autobiographical. He was interned in a Japanese prison camp near Shanghai during World War II, although he was not separated from his parents as depicted in the book and film.
- Studied medicine at Cambridge but never practiced; studied English for a year at London University; joined the Royal Air Force.
- Father of television executive Beatrice Ballard.
- The future is going to be boring. The suburbanisation of the planet will continue, and the suburbanisation of the soul will follow soon after.
- In a completely sane world, madness is the only freedom.
- I believe in the power of the imagination to remake the world, to release the truth within us, to hold back the night, to transcend death, to charm motorways, to ingratiate ourselves with birds, to enlist the confidences of madmen.
- [on turning down a CBE in 2003] There's all that bowing and scraping and mummery at the palace. It's the whole climate of deference to the monarch and everything else it represents. They just seem to perpetuate the image of Britain as too much pomp and not enough circumstance. It's a huge pantomime where tinsel takes the place of substance. A lot of these medals are orders of the British Empire, which is a bit ludicrous. The dreams of empire were only swept away relatively recently, in the 60s. Suddenly, we seem to have a prime minister who has delusions of a similar kind. It goes with the whole system of hereditary privilege and rank, which should be swept away. It uses snobbery and social self-consciousness to guarantee the loyalty of large numbers of citizens who should feel their loyalty is to fellow citizens and the nation as a whole. We are a deeply class-divided society.
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