382 Quotes by Anthony Burgess

We are supposed to be the children of Seth; but Seth is too much of an effete nonentity to deserve ancestral regard. No, we are the sons of Cain, and with violence can be associated the attacks on sound, stone, wood and metal that produced civilization.

The downtrodden are the great creators of slang.

A Haydn symphony had a meaning for the social group that listened to it. A Mahler symphony had a meaning for the man who composed it. Here is the difference between the classical and romantic attitudes to art.

Americans will listen, but they do not care to read. War and Peace must wait for the leisure of retirement, which never really comes: meanwhile it helps to furnish the living room.

The practice of fiction can be dangerous: it puts ideas into the head of the world.

We all need money, but there are degrees of desperation.

Blockbusting fiction is bought as furniture. Unread, it maintains its value. Read, it looks like money wasted. Cunningly, Americans know that books contain a person, and they want the person, not the book.

Women thrive on novelty and are easy meat for the commerce of fashion. Men prefer old pipes and torn jackets.

All novels are experimental.