Quotes by Anita Brookner

“You are wrong if you think you cannot live without love, Edith.''No, I am not,' she said, slowly. 'I cannot live without it. Oh, I do not mean that I go into a decline, develop odd symptoms, become...”

“Good women always think it is their fault when someone else is being offensive. Bad women never take the blame for anything.”

“Dr Weiss, at forty, knew that her life had been ruined by literature”

“Boundaries keep people out mine served only to keep me in. ”

“Literature for me was a magnificent destiny for which I was not yet fully prepared. 76”

“That sun, that light had faded, and she had faded with them. Now she was as grey as the season itself.”

“I suppose what one wants really is ideal company and books are ideal company.”

“Women share their sadness, thought Edith. Their joy they like to show off to one another. Victory, triumph over the odds, calls for an audience. And that air of bustle and exigence sometimes affect...”

“As a devil's advocate Mr Neville was faultless. And yet, she knew, there was a flaw in his reasoning, just as there was a flaw in his ability to feel.”

“Of course, the spectacle of two people's happiness is always something of a magnet for the unclaimed.”

“[] nobody grows up. Everyone carries around all the selves that they have ever been, intact, waiting to be reactivated in moments of pain, of fear, of danger. Everything is retrievable, every shock...”

“Awareness of freedom and responsibility creates anxiety, which is also referred to as anguish or angst. Aspects of romantic attachments can relieve anxieties. For example, Mario Mikulincer et al. a...”

“And without understanding, could each properly love the other?”

“Old times, sad times. I feel better about them now than I did then.”

“I remember at that time I went to the hairdresser's. I did this regularly, but I remember that visit for two particular reasons. The first was that next to me was a young mother with a little girl ...”

“They had waited for too long, and the result was this hiatus, and the reflection that time and patience may bring poor rewards, that time itself, if not confronted at the appropriate juncture, can ...”

“I reflected how easy it is for a man to reduce women of a certain age to imbecility. All he has to do is give an impersonation of desire, or better still, of secret knowledge, for a woman to feel h...”

“Not everyone is born to fulfill an heroic role. The only realistic ambition is to live in the present. And sometimes, quite often in fact, this is more than enough to keep one busy. Time, which was...”

“I was a teacher most of my life, which I loved. I had a very happy working life, and when I retired, I thought I must do something, and I've always read a lot of fiction - you learn so much from fi...”

“Time misspent in youth is sometimes all the freedom one ever has.”