Anita Brookner
Anita Brookner
Anita Brookner, CBEwas a British award-winning novelist and art historian. She was Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge from 1967 to 1968 and was the first woman to hold this visiting professorship. She was awarded the 1984 Man Booker Prize for her novel Hotel du Lac...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionHistorian
Date of Birth16 July 1938
monday morning writing
The evening passes somehow; I watch television with Nancy, or I write. It is difficult, not having a family, and it is difficult to explain. I always go to bed early. And I am always ready for Monday morning, that time that other people dread.
writing moral negotiation
To remain pure, a novel has to cast a moral puzzle. Anything else is mere negotiation.
writing despair
Writing has freed me from the despair of living.
writing attention innocence
Writing novels preserves you in a state of innocence - a lot passes you by - simply because your attention is otherwise diverted.
book writing simple
The lessons taught in great books are misleading. The commerce in life is rarely so simple and never so just.
god writing saint
Great writers are the saints for the godless.
writing knows
You never know what you will learn till you start writing. Then you discover truths you never knew existed.
real writing winning
In real life, it is the hare who wins. Every time. Look around you. And in any case it is my contention that Aesop was writing for the tortoise market. Hares have no time to read. They are too busy winning the game.
art form leads nowhere
What is interesting about self-analysis is that it leads nowhere -- it is an art form in itself.
bleak
I'm not very popular, because they're bleak and they're mournful and all the rest of it and I get censorious reviews. But I'm only writing fiction. I'm not making munitions, so I think it's acceptable.
I'm a middle-class, middle-brow novelist. And that's it. It amuses me.
interruptions
Death is only a small interruption.
lonely passion animal
I am not a romantic. I am a domestic animal. I do not sigh and yearn for extravagant displays of passion, for the grand affair, the world well lost for love. I know all that, and know that it leaves you lonely. No, what I crave is the simplicity of routine. An evening walk, arm in arm, in fine weather. A game of cards. Time for idle talk. Preparing a meal together.
selfish reason selfish-reasons
It is best to marry for purely selfish reasons.