List of Anita Brookner Quotes

The Evening Passes Somehow; I Watch Television With Nancy, Or I Write. It Is Difficult, Not Having A Family, And It Is Difficult To Explain. I Always Go To Bed Early. And I Am Always Ready For Monday Morning, That Time That Other People Dread.

One Loses The Capacity To Grieve As A Child Grieves, Or To Rage As A Child Rages: Hotly, Despairingly, With Tears Of Passion. One Grows Up, One Becomes Civilized, One Learns One's Manners, And Consequently Can No Longer Manage These Two Functions - Sorrow And Anger - Adequately.

A Man Can Go From Being A Lover To Being A Stranger In Three Moves Flat But A Woman Under The Guise Of Friendship Will Engage In Acts Of Duplicity Which Come To Light Very Much Later. There Are Different Species Of Self-justification.

A Complete Woman Is Probably Not A Very Admirable Creature. She Is Manipulative, Uses Other People To Get Her Own Way, And Works Within Whatever System She Is In.

Life Is A Pilgrimage And If You Don't Play By The Rules You Don't Find The Road To Damascus, You Find The Crown Of Thorns.

I Was Brought Up Among The Sort Of Self-important Women Who Had A Husband As One Has An Alibi.

You Can Never Betray The People Who Are Dead, So You Go On Being A Public Jew; The Dead Can't Answer Slurs, But I'm Here. I Would Love To Think That Jesus Wants Me For A Sunbeam, But He Doesn't.

It Will Be A Pity If Women In The More Conventional Mould Are To Be Phased Out, For There Will Never Be Anyone To Go Home To.

I Think You Always Feel Braver In Another Language.

I Am Not A Romantic. I Am A Domestic Animal. I Do Not Sigh And Yearn For Extravagant Displays Of Passion, For The Grand Affair, The World Well Lost For Love. I Know All That, And Know That It Leaves You Lonely. No, What I Crave Is The Simplicity Of Routine. An Evening Walk, Arm In Arm, In Fine Weather. A Game Of Cards. Time For Idle Talk. Preparing A Meal Together.

Life... Is Not Simply A Series Of Exciting New Ventures. The Future Is Not Always A Whole New Ball Game. There Tends To Be Unfinished Business. One Trails All Sorts Of Things Around With One, Things That Simply Won't Be Got Rid Of.

The Lessons Taught In Great Books Are Misleading. The Commerce In Life Is Rarely So Simple And Never So Just.