129 quotes
'It was not seemly to raise your flags on the minarets.'
Napoleon Symphony (1974)
The dog looked up through its hairy yashmak and farted.
The Right to an Answer (1960)
Chickaks or geckos chirp on the walls....
Homage to QWERT YUIOP: Selected Journalism 1978-1985 (1986)
It is generally felt that the educated man or woman should be able to read Dante, Goethe, Baudelaire, Lorca in the original - with, anyway, the crutch of a translation.
A Mouthful of Air: Language and Languages, Especially English (1992)
There must always be somebody. However young or insignificant. There has to be somebody who comes from nowhere to say what others are too foolish or too frightened to say.
Napoleon Symphony (1974)
'The Government cannot be concerned any longer with outmoded penological theories....Common criminals...can best be dealt with on a purely curative basis. Kill the criminal reflex, that’s all.'
A Clockwork Orange (1962)
It was all a matter of a Goddess – dark, hidden, deadly, horribly desirable.
Nothing Like the Sun (1964)
If you reject family - which a mother holds together - as well as the ties of Church and State, is there anything left for you?
Here Comes Everybody: An Introduction to James Joyce for the Ordinary Reader (1965)
"All right,” said Rowlandson. He began shakily to count out notes. Near-broken, he was still an Englishman; he would not bargain.
Devil of a State (1961)
'Yes yes yes, later. For now I would ask you to proclaim next Friday from the mimbar in the masjid that the French are protectors of the faith and friends of the Prophet.'
Napoleon Symphony (1974)
The Turks would do anything with a captured screaming infidel body - make it chew its own penis, thrust the testicles up the anus, saw the noseless earless head off with slow delicacy.
Napoleon Symphony (1974)
‘Ass’ for ‘arse’ does not seem to represent a willingness, on British lines, to make the word arhotic; rather it is a puritanical substitution which forces a real ass to become a donkey or burro.
A Mouthful of Air: Language and Languages, Especially English (1992)
‘...You know what they call you expatriates? White leeches.’
The Enemy in the Blanket (1958)
The Christians are right when they render unto Caesar and unto God but keep the two tributes apart. All rule must be secular. When God enters politics, he turns into his opposite. Always has. Always will.
The Kingdom of the Wicked (1985)
As I walked towards travel, that illusion of liberation, I strangely felt myself walking back into childhood.
The Right to an Answer (1960)
‘…Women I do not much care for myself - I prefer little Greek shepherd-boys…’
Tremor of Intent (1966)
“...I’m a typical Englishman of my class - a crank idealist.”
Beds in the East (1959)
I know little about the women of my own race...
The Right to an Answer (1960)
The West is eveningland, the East morningland.
Nothing Like the Sun (1964)
There was a certain creative excitement, expressed in glandular constrictions which he knew well.
Beds in the East (1959)