Quotes by Anita Brookner

About Anita Brookner:

Anita Brookner is a British award-winning novelist and art historian. She was Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge from 1967 to 1968 and was the first woman to hold this visiting professorship. She was awarded the 1984 Man Booker Prize for her novel Hotel du Lac.
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z

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

Anita Brookner

As he lay expiring in the agony of death, the standers-by could hear him say softly 'I have seen the glories of the world.

Anita Brookner

This Earle of Oxford, making of his low obeisance to Queen Elizabeth, happened to let a Fart, at which he was so abashed and ashamed that he went to Travell, 7 yeares. On his returne the Queen welcomed him home, and sayd, My Lord, I had forgott the F...

Anita Brookner

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

Anita Brookner

What is interesting about self-analysis is that it leads nowhere - it is an art form in itself.

Anita Brookner

[...] death is only a small interruption.

Anita Brookner

[…] 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, every hurt. But perhaps it becomes a duty to aba...

Anita Brookner

[...] no man is free of his own history.

Anita Brookner

And without understanding, could each properly love the other?

Anita Brookner

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

Anita Brookner

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

Anita Brookner

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.

Anita Brookner

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

Anita Brookner

It is my contention that Aesop was writing for the tortoise market. hares have no time to read.

Anita Brookner

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

Anita Brookner

I was brought up to look after my parents. My family were Polish Jews, and we lived with my grandmother, with uncles and aunts and cousins all around, and I thought everybody lived like that.

Anita Brookner

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.

Anita Brookner

I never learnt Hebrew because my health was fragile, and it was thought that learning Hebrew would be an added burden. I regret it, because I would like to be able to join in fully. Not that I am a believer, but I would like to be.

Anita Brookner

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.

Anita Brookner

There are moments when you feel free, moments when you have energy, moments when you have hope, but you can't rely on any of these things to see you through. Circumstances do that.

Anita Brookner

Author Bio

  • NameAnita Brookner
  • DescriptionBritish novelist and art historian.
  • BornJuly 16, 1928
  • CountryUnited Kingdom
  • ProfessionWriter; Art Historian; Novelist
  • AwardsCommander Of The Order Of The British Empire