Elizabeth Bowen
Elizabeth Bowen
Elizabeth Bowen, CBEwas an Anglo-Irish novelist and short story writer...
NationalityIrish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth7 June 1899
CountryIreland
morning time spring
Autumn arrives in early morning, but spring at the close of a winter day.
book writing thinking
My writing, I am prepared to think, may be a substitute for something I have been born without - a so-called normal relation to society. My books are my relation to society.
jealousy loneliness envy
Jealousy is no more than feeling alone against smiling enemies.
writing literature firsts
The importance to the writer of first writing must be out of all proportion of the actual value of what is written.
men two different-faces
A romantic man often feels more uplifted with two women than with one: his love seems to hit the ideal mark somewhere between two different faces.
educational ideas shadow
One can live in the shadow of an idea without grasping it.
character found
Characters are not created by writers. They pre-exist and have to be found.
children taken talking
With no banal reassuring grown-ups present, with grown-up intervention taken away, there is no limit to the terror strange children feel of each other, a terror life obscures but never ceases to justify. There is no end to the violations committed by children on children, quietly talking alone.
writing character mistress
Jane Austen, much in advance of her day, was a mistress of the use of the dialogue. She used it as dialogue should be used-to advance the story; not only to show the characters, but to advance.
art feelings literature
Illusions are art, for the feeling person, and it is by art that we live, if we do.
love selfishness impossible
Pity the selfishness of lovers: it is brief, a forlorn hope; it is impossible.
writing said turns
What is being said is the effect of something that has happened; at the same time, what is being said is in itself something happening, which will, in turn, leave its effect.
character people growth
Some people are molded by their admirations, others by their hostilities.
passion literature minors
We are minor in everything but our passions.