A. S. Byatt
A. S. Byatt
Dame Antonia Susan Duffy DBE– known as A. S. Byatt – is an English novelist, poet and Booker Prize winner. In 2008, The Times newspaper named her on its list of the 50 greatest British writers since 1945...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth24 August 1936
christian self worry
I worry about anthropomorphism as a form of self-deception. (The Christian religion is an anthropomorphic account of the universe.)
hate mirrors self
Cyclists. I really hate them. I wish they would not be so self-righteous and realise they are a danger to pedestrians. I wish cyclists would not vindictively snap off wing mirrors on cars when they were trying to cross in front of the car at a danger to motorists and pedestrians.
lying self fiction
Autobiographies tell more lies than all but the most self-indulgent fiction .
self moral-beliefs looks
I'm not very interested in myself. I do have a deep moral belief that you should always look out at other things and not be self-centred.
self trying revealing
I have a dreadful fear that the more you try to prevent revealing the self, the more you do.
hate thinking curiosity
I think the virtue I prize above all others is curiosity. If you look really hard at almost anybody, and try to see why they're doing what they're doing, taking a dig at them ceases to be what you want to do even if you hate them.
greatness secret balance
Biographies are no longer written to explain or explore the greatness of the great. They redress balances, explore secret weaknesses, demolish legends.
world absence reason
I know that part of the reason I read Tolkien when I'm ill is that there is an almost total absence of sexuality in his world, which is restful.
writing way paint
I'd like to write the way Matisse paints.
writing novelists hated
I hated being a novelist when I was 20 - I had nothing to write about.
book writing people
I don't understand why, in my work, writing is always so dangerous. It's very destructive. People who write books are destroyers.
writing thinking venus
I don't think it is an easy thing to write and expect to be commercial, even if you are from Venus and a hermaphrodite.
writing ants literature
I don't only write about English literature; I also write about chaos theory and... ants. I can understand ants.
believe thinking people
I don't like gurus. I don't like people who ask you to follow or believe. I like people who ask you to think independently.