103 Quotes by Anita Brookner

Real love is a pilgrimage. It happens when there is no strategy, but it is very rare because most people are strategists.

Great writers are the saints for the godless.

Like many rich men, he thought in anecdotes; like many simple women, she thought in terms of biography.

Writing novels preserves you in a state of innocence - a lot passes you by - simply because your attention is otherwise diverted.

All good fortune is a gift of the gods, and you don't win the favor of the ancient gods by being good, but by being bold.

Old men should have more care to end life well than to live long.

I've never got on very well with Jane Austen.

If I were happy, married with six children, I wouldn't be writing. And I doubt if I should want to.

People say that I am always serious and depressing, but it seems to me that the English are never serious - they are flippant, complacent, ineffable, but never serious, which is sometimes maddening.