Lawrence Durrell
Lawrence Durrell
Lawrence George Durrellwas an expatriate British novelist, poet, dramatist, and travel writer...
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth27 February 1912
loneliness ambition pride
The loved object is simply one that has shared an experience at the same moment of time, narcissistically; and the desire to be near the beloved object is at first not due to the idea of possessing it, but simply to let the two experiences compare themselves, like reflections in different mirrors. All this may precede the first look, kiss, or touch; precede ambition, pride, or envy; precede the first declarations which mark the turning point—for from here love degenerates into habit, possession, and back to loneliness.
heart soul desire
Whatever the heart desires, it purchases at the cost of soul
law dating giving
Shyness has laws you can only give yourself; tragically to those who least understand.
country patriotic artist
Everyone loathes his own country and countrymen if he is any sort of artist.
wine spite desirable
Everything really desirable has come about because of, or in spite of, wine!
insult-to-injury age insult
Old age is an insult. It's like being smacked.
ideas bird branches
An idea is like a rare bird which cannot be seen. What one sees is the trembling of the branch it has just left.
thinking complicated life-is
Life is more complicated than we think, yet far simpler than anyone dares to imagine
reality danger equal
To be the equal of reality you must learn how to ignore it without danger.
writing unique reality
We live" writes Pursewarden somewhere, "lives based upon selected fictions. Our view of reality is conditioned by our position in space and time - not by our personalities as we like to think. Thus every interpretation of reality is based upon a unique position. Two paces east or west and the whole picture is changed.
people missing fever
People only see in us the contemptible skirt-fever which rules our actions but completely miss the beauty-hunger underlying it.
mirrors evil done
I have done so many things in my life," she said to the mirror. "Evil things, perhaps. But never unattentively, never wastefully...was I wrong?
secret approach idleness
I suppose the secret of his success is in his tremendous idleness which almost approaches the supernatural.
mean islands sea
…I once found a list of diseases as yet unclassified by medical science, and among these there occurred the word Islomania, which was described as a rare but by no means unknown affliction of spirit. There are people…who find islands somehow irresistible. The mere knowledge that they are on an island, a little world surrounded by the sea, fills them with an indescribable intoxication. These born “islomanes”…are direct descendents of the Atlanteans