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Quotes from Stepping Westward — Malcolm Bradbury

1932–2000 England

← All quotes by Malcolm Bradbury

9 quotes

"You see, you are an optimist and live on hope. I am a pessimist and live on experience."

Stepping Westward (1965)

"Well," said Dr Jochum, "you are like all reformers. You like to reform the world because it is easier than trying to reform yourself."

Stepping Westward (1965)

"Well, yes, surely I think everybody ought to enjoy life as much as it's humanly possible because that's why we exist. I believe."

Stepping Westward (1965)

The English are polite by telling lies. The Americans are polite by telling the truth.

Stepping Westward (1965)

My experience of ships is that on them one makes an interesting discovery about the world. One finds one can do without it completely.

Stepping Westward (1965)

"We got a course in picknicking at the university," said Dr. Bourbon. "It's called Geology, but it's really picknicking."

Stepping Westward (1965)

Jochum had said, "You keep asking the universe 'How ought I to live?' But it can't answer."

Stepping Westward (1965)

Reading someone else's newspaper is like sleeping with someone else's wife. Nothing seems to be precisely in the right place, and when you find what you are looking for, it is not clear then how to respond to it.

Stepping Westward (1965)

[A]nd the traffic noise that boomed in through the window was another reminder of what his spirit knew, that he was but a grain of sand in someone else's desert.

Stepping Westward (1965)

Attribution

Quotes and notes from Wikiquote: Malcolm Bradbury (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0.