438 Quotes by John Fowles

German is to death what Latin is to ritual religion – entirely appropriate.

It was not the mask I was afraid of... but of what lay behind the mask. The eternal source of all fear, all horror, all real evil, man himself.

Duty largely consists of pretending that the trivial is critical, and I was never accomplished at that. ‘I.

Utram bibis? Aquam an undam? What are you drinking? The water or the wave?

She was a mirror that did not lie; whose interest in me was real; whose love was real.

Follow the accident, fear the fixed plan – that is the rule.

It’s rather like your voice. You put up with your voice and speak with it because you haven’t any choice. But it’s what you say that counts. It’s what distinguishes all great art from the other kind.

He has that selfishness – it’s not even an honest selfishness, because he puts the blame on life and then enjoys being selfish with a free conscience.

The great majority of modern third-person narration is “I” narration very thinly disguised.