A kind reader sent in the William Gibson quote I couldn't find. It's below. Originally from Paul Smith's You Can Find Inspiration In Anything. But, found, in this instance, on The Obsessive.
I'm writing William Gibson and Paul Smith again so I can increase the chances of googling successfully for this when I want to find it again.
William Gibson. Paul Smith.
"The inhabitants of London and Tokyo, however, are consummate appreciators of 'secret brands'; they act out private dramas of relative consumer-status with a gravitas seldom seen elsewhere. Both the English and the Japanese are brilliant importers. If you want to know what it is that your own country produces that is genuinely excellent, look for what the most obsessively discerning residents of London and Tokyo choose to import. Look for the choices of the otaku, the fanatic of pure information."
