Anita Brookner's Quotes

A man of such obvious and exemplary charm must be a liar.

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

Accountability in friendship is the equivalent of love without strategy.

No blame should attach to telling the truth. But it does, it does.

Writing novels preserves you in a state of innocence - a lot passes you by - simply because your attention is otherwise diverted.

In real life, it is the hare who wins. Every time. Look around you. And in any case it is my contention that Aesop was writing for the tortoise market. Hares have no time to read. They are too busy winning the game.

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.

Great writers are the saints for the godless.

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.

Like many rich men, he thought in anecdotes; like many simple women, she thought in terms of biography.

The essence of romantic love is that wonderful beginning, after which sadness and impossibility may become the rule.

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

Existentialism is about being a saint without God; being your own hero, without all the sanction and support of religion or society.

Real love is a pilgrimage. It happens when there is no strategy, but it is very rare because most people are strategists.

The lessons taught in great books are misleading. The commerce in life is rarely so simple and never so just.

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

You have no idea how promising the world begins to look once you have decided to have it all for yourself. And how much healthier your decisions are once they become entirely selfish.