Anita Brookner

“No blame should attach to telling the truth.”

“[...] death is only a small interruption.”

“I suppose what one wants really is ideal company and books are ideal company.”

“Great writers are the saints for the godless.”

“In real life, of course, it is the hare that wins. Every time. Look around you.”

“In real life, it is the hare who wins. Every time. Look around you. And in any case it is my contention that Aesop was writing for the tortoise market. Hares have no time to read. They are t...”

“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 ma...”

“I'm not very popular, because they're bleak and they're mournful and all the rest of it and I get censorious reviews. But I'm only writing fiction. I'm not making munitions, so I think it's...”

“It will be a pity if women in the more conventional mould are to be phased out, for there will never be anyone to go home to.”

“You can never betray the people who are dead, so you go on being a public Jew; the dead can't answer slurs, but I'm here. I would love to think that Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, but he does...”

“It is my contention that Aesop was writing for the tortoise market. hares have no time to read.”

“I was a teacher most of my life, which I loved. I had a very happy working life, and when I retired, I thought I must do something, and I've always read a lot of fiction - you learn so much...”