93 quotes
For the educated man, there is a moment of his early acquaintanceship with Dante when he realizes that all he has slowly taught himself to enjoy in poetry is everything that Dante has grown out of.
At the Pillars of Hercules (1979)
Nothing Like the Sun and the Enderby books prove that Burgess is as clever as he seems. His utopian satires, of which 1985 is yet another, mainly just seem clever. At a generous estimate there are half a dozen ideas in each of them.
Hughes spends a lot of time in this book saying what his country never had, and still hasn't got. Actually it's got it, because it's got Hughes. He should give his country a little more credit, if only because it still gives so much credit to him.
I remember the shock of seeing Ray undressed. He looked as if he had a squirrel hanging there. I had an acorn.
Unreliable Memoirs (1980)
After Mao, not even Pol Pot came as a surprise. Sadly, he was a cliché.
Cultural Amnesia: Notes in the Margin of My Time (2007)
The new Germany is a democracy. So was the old Germany, or it tried to be: but then the Nazis got on, and Hell broke loose. It can break loose anywhere: all people have hellish propensities.
As Of This Writing (2003)
The literary critic, or the critic of any other specific form of artistic expression, may detach himself from the world for as long as the work of art he is contemplating appears to do the same.
Glued to the Box (1983)
I can remember being young enough, long ago, to believe that in Tennessee Williams the giant themes of Greek tragedy had returned, all hung about with Magnolias. Ignorance of Greek tragedy helped in this view.
The Crystal Bucket (1982)
John Carey, who had once buried The Metropolitan Critic, hailed Unreliable Memoirs as the written equivalent of sliced bread. Instantly I revised my opinion of his critical prowess upwards.
North Face of Soho (2006)
The Italian Marxist composer Luigi Nono (BBC2) proclaims the necessity for contemporary music to 'intervene' in something called 'the sonic reality of our time.' Apparently it should do this by being as tuneless as possible.
The Crystal Bucket (1982)
Few artists were ever fully well, so it is no great trick to prove them ill. There are commentators who can't get interested in Caravaggio until they find out he killed someone. They are only one step from believing that every killer is Caravaggio.
Cultural Amnesia: Notes in the Margin of My Time (2007)
I see the pain on your face when you say the word intellectual, because it has so many syllables in it.
My idea of a fine wine was one that merely stained your teeth without stripping the enamel.
Falling Towards England (1985)
From 'The Book of My Enemy Has Been Remaindered'
Taste was his world. Rilke behaved as if art were taste elevated to the highest possible degree. The armigerous chatelaines who played hostess were happy to believe it, since the idea made them artists too.
Cultural Amnesia: Notes in the Margin of My Time (2007)
From "Beware of the Beautiful Stranger". title song of 1970 album, sung by Pete Atkin.
Give or take the odd anatomical discrepancy, John Berger affects me exactly like Jane Fonda - ie. any opinion of mine which I discover he shares I immediately examine to find out what's wrong with it.
Glued to the Box (1983)
It often happens that we are most touched by what we are least capable of. Evanescent delicacy is not the quality in the arts that I admire most, but it is often the characteristic by which I am most reduced to envy.
Unreliable Memoirs (1980)
On the surface of the water, a midge vanishes into a hungry ripple. I'm not ready yet. He wonders why, at his age and having come so far, he still feels that. The culmination of his luck is that he will never feel any other way.
May Week Was in June (1990)
Disco dancing is really dancing for people who hate dancing, since the beat is so monotonous that only the champions can find interesting ways of reacting to it. There is no syncopation, just the steady thump of a giant moron knocking in an endless nail.
The Crystal Bucket (1982)