While we're on the subject of time

The worst thing you could say about Kevin Shields, in fact, is that he considers time to be an infinitely elastic concept. 'I suppose,' he mused recently, 'I've been more wrong than most people when it comes to time in the sense that I'm always late. But it kind of works. That's the weird part of it... everything works out in the end. I'm kind of happy.'

Had I spoken again to Kevin Shields, I was planning to read him a quote from another interview I did a few years back with the psychologist and author Adam Phillips. When I asked Phillips what would be the single thing that might make us more content in our ever-accelerating culture, he took his time before replying. Then, finally, he said: 'We need to find the time to daydream and be bored, and to see that, too, as a part of our creativity. We need, as it were, to find the time to waste time without worrying about the consequences.' Kevin Shields, you imagine, would have approved.