117 Quotes by william boyd

I was convinced I had overdrawn my balance of good fortune; that whatever haphazard benevolence the impassive universe might hold towards me was all but gone.

I say to myself, at last you are in tune with the universe.

Mr Lysander Rief looks like someone who is far more at ease occupying the cold security of the dark; a man happier with the dubious comfort of the shadows.

Lysander saw that they were displaying all the timeworn and conventional feints and poor disguises of lovers meeting in a public place and hoping the real nature of their relationship would be invisible.

Ben has been a discreet and true friend, given he was an usher at my wedding. I tried to explain the situation vis-à-vis Lottie but he didn't want to hear. 'I don't care, Logan. You live your life and I'll live mine. I won't judge you― just as long as you're happy. I'd hope you'd do the same for me.' I assured him I would.

Are our lives just the aggregate of the lies we've told? ('Lives' - the 'v' is silent.)

Take it off at once. I'll lend you another. School ties are for schoolboys and schoolmasters. No grown man should be seen dead in a school tie. Same goes for regimental and club ties. Appalling bad taste."William Boyd Armadillo

Hot crumpets with butter and jam - what could be more ambrosial?

People come to us...us novelists...looking for information about all the other people in the world; what we're thinking, what we need, what we dream about, what we hate, what makes us tick.... People are opaque, mysterious, even those dearest to us are closed books. If you want to know what people are like, if you want to know what's going on in their heads behind those masks we all wear then read a novel.