“… Failure with clay was more complete and more spectacular than with other forms of art.  You are subject to the elements…Any one of the old four – earth, air, fire, water – can betray you and melt, or burst, or shatter – months of work into dust and ashes and spitting steam.  You need to be a precise scientist, and you need to know how to play with what chance will do to your lovingly constructed surfaces in the heat of the kiln.”
A.S.Byatt