Skip to content

William Boyd Quotes

born 1952 Scotland

William Andrew Murray Boyd CBE FRSL (born 7 March 1952) is a Scottish novelist, short story writer and screenwriter.

Scotland
Autobiographers
Essayists
Novelists
Playwrights

Also known as: A Good Man in Africa

Random William Boyd quote

16 quotes

There are so many hypochondriacs out here. I think Murray can spot them a mile off."

A Good Man in Africa (1981)

"Dear Faye, I feel a little fitter today. Perhaps everything will be fine after all ..."

The New Confessions (1987)

I want you to get to know Murray because I want you to bribe him."

A Good Man in Africa (1981)

It seems to me that there are statements about the world and our lives that have no need of formal proof procedures.

Brazzaville Beach (1990)

I know he never loved me, but that, as far as I am concerned, is of little importance. He did not love me because, quite simply, I was a constant reminder of his loss."

The New Confessions (1987)

Morgan liked to imagine the town as some immense yeast culture, left in a deep cupboard by an absentminded lab technician, festering uncontrolled, running rampant in the ideal growing conditions.

A Good Man in Africa (1981)

Actually I can't stand the man. Sanctimonious, Calvinistic, so-and-so. Totally unsympathetic — can't think why he became a doctor — hectoring, bullying — sort of moral storm-trooper.

A Good Man in Africa (1981)

That's Africa for you, eh? Trouble-free sex and tranquillizers. What do they call it? Post-pill paradise or something. Load of nonsense. Never seen a more neurotic, glum bunch in my life.

A Good Man in Africa (1981)

Can't you keep this bloody place tidy?"

A Good Man in Africa (1981)

My first act on entering this world was to kill my mother.

The New Confessions (1987)

My maid Innocence. She's dead.

A Good Man in Africa (1981)

The natural world is full of irregularity and random alteration, but in the antiseptic, dust-free, shadowless, brightly lit, abstract realm of the mathematicians they like their cabbages spherical, please.

Brazzaville Beach (1990)

There were things about him that I found potently intriguing, but if I looked too closely at those vivid encrusted spots my scalp literally began to crawl and my eyes water."

The New Confessions (1987)

Like Rome, Nkongsamba was built on seven hills, but there all similarity ended. Set in undulating tropical rain forest, from the air it resembled nothing so much as a giant pool of crapulous vomit on somebody’s expansive unmown lawn.

A Good Man in Africa (1981)

Philip looked at me. "I was going to ask you to dinner tonight, but now that I've seen your lunch I guess you won't be hungry.'
'Ha-ha. Call me later, you may get lucky'"

The Blue Afternoon (1993)

I have no idea why he did not like me. Normally, with an age gap of six years, an older brother will treat a younger with fond enthusiasm - a favorite sidekick, an instant fan, almost like a pet - but Thompson's attitudes then, as far as I remember, were either indifference or irritation."

The New Confessions (1987)

Attribution

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