13 quotes
All writers know aspects of life that they take very much for granted, that yet to their readers appear peculiar, special.
The Wild Garden (1963)
I have no concern for the common man except that he should not be so common.
No Laughing Matter (1967)
Life isn't just to be found, you have to work for it.
No Laughing Matter (1967)
Life can't be put on paper in all its complexity.
No Laughing Matter (1967)
The roots of art and play lie very close together.
No Laughing Matter (1967)
But you mustn't be too sane, darlings. It really won't do in this family.
No Laughing Matter (1967)
Between Margaret's fine-edged art and Gladys's rough simplicity, where did the greater feminine solace lie? True art, after all, is simple.
No Laughing Matter (1967)
People are able to live with only half a heart, to live without real compassion, because they are able to use words that are only forms.
The opportunities for heroism are limited in this kind of world: the most people can do is sometimes not to be as weak as they’ve been at other times.
[T]he impulse to write a novel comes from a momentary unified vision of life.
The Wild Garden (1963)
In writing novels I have never been able to place much importance upon the distinction between real and imagined. A novelist, it seems to me, makes as much or as little use of the real world as he needs to project his vision of life.
The Wild Garden (1963)
Youth is the time for loving, So poets often say.
Misattributed
April, April, laugh thy girlish laughter, and the moment after, Weep thy girlish tears, April.
Misattributed