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Language is the net that holds thought trapped within a particular culture. But if one could only strike the ball with sufficient force, with perfect timing, it would perhaps break through the netting, continue on its course, never fall to earth, but go into orbit around the world.

— David Lodge Small World (1984)

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More quotes by David Lodge

I respect a man who can recognize a quotation. It's a dying art.

Small World (1984)

Literature is mostly about having sex and not much about having children. Life is the other way round.

Looking around at the faces of his colleagues in the Senior Common Room he felt reassured: not a Lineament of Gratified Desire to be seen.

Morris read through the letter. Was it a shade too fulsome? No, that was another law of academic life: it is impossible to be excessive in flattery of one’s peers.

I'm a bit of a deconstructionist myself. It's kind of exciting – the last intellectual thrill left. Like sawing through the branch you're sitting on.

Small World (1984)

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Attribution

Quote text and notes from Wikiquote: David Lodge (page history), available under CC BY-SA 4.0. Source quality and labels are our own summary of what Wikiquote records.