Sebastian Faulks
Sebastian Faulks
Sebastian Charles Faulks CBEis a British novelist, journalist and broadcaster. He is best known for his historical novels set in France – The Girl at the Lion d'Or, Birdsong and Charlotte Gray. He has also published novels with a contemporary setting, most recently A Week in December, and a James Bond continuation novel, Devil May Care, as well as a continuation of P.G. Wodehouse's Jeeves series, Jeeves and the Wedding Bells. He is a team captain on BBC Radio 4...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth20 April 1953
glee
. . . she read with undifferentiated glee . . .
people alive hardest
One of the hardest things about being alive is being with other people.
way used chosen
I'd never chosen to be alone, but that was the way things had turned out, and I'd grown used to it.
half levels different
We all operate on different levels of awareness. Half the time I don't know what I'm doing.
peace breathe silent
It was entirely silent and I tried to breathe its peace.
feelings alive inexplicable
Gradually the feeling wears off, and I feel swamped again by the inexplicable pettiness of being alive.
pain shock
The physical shock took away the pain of being.
stills
My direction? Anywhere. Because one is always nearer by not keeping still.
art book two
From an early age she had developed the art of being alone and generally preferred her own company to anyone else’s. She read books at enormous speed and judged them entirely on her ability to remove her from her material surroundings. In almost all the unhappiest days of her life she had been able to escape from her own inner world by living temporarily in someone else’s, and on the two or three occasions that she had been too upset to concentrate she had been desolate.
laughter war men
The men loved jokes, though they had heard each one before. Jack's manner was persuasive; few of them had seen the old stories so well delivered. Jack himeself laughed a little, but he was able to see the effect his performance had on his audience. The noise of their laughter roared like the sea in his ears. He wanted it louder and louder; he wanted them to drown out the war with their laughter. If the could should loud enough, they might bring the world back to its senses; they might laugh loud enough to raise the dead.
country children father
Some crime against nature is about to be committed. I feel it in my veins. These men and boys are grocers and clerks, gardeners and fathers - fathers of small children. A country cannot bear to lose them.
providence indifferent
It's better to have a malign providence than an indifferent one.
song heart thinking
But I think if any song can touch the heart, then one should value it.
suffering doe interest
That's what opium does to suffering: makes it of hypothetical interest only.