Quotes by Brookner, Anita

"She was a handsome woman of forty-five and would remain so for many years."

Brookner, Anita on age and aging   

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

Brookner, Anita on fiction   

"Accountability in friendship is the equivalent of love without strategy."

Brookner, Anita on friends and friendship
10 fans of this quote   

"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."

Brookner, Anita on god
5 fans of this quote   

"What is interesting about self-analysis is that it leads nowhere -- it is an art form in itself."

Brookner, Anita on introspection   

"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 doesn't."

Brookner, Anita on judaism and jews   

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

Brookner, Anita on love
13 fans of this quote   

"A man can go from being a lover to being a stranger in three moves flat but a woman under the guise of friendship will engage in acts of duplicity which come to light very much later. There are different species of self-justification."

Brookner, Anita on love   

"Existentialism is about being a saint without God; being your own hero, without all the sanction and support of religion or society."

Brookner, Anita on philosophers and philosophy
3 fans of this quote   

"The essence of romantic love is that wonderful beginning, after which sadness and impossibility may become the rule."

Brookner, Anita on romance and romanticism
4 fans of this quote   

"Romanticism is not just a mode; it literally eats into every life. Women will never get rid of just waiting for the right man."

Brookner, Anita on romance and romanticism
3 fans of this quote   

"The lessons taught in great books are misleading. The commerce in life is rarely so simple and never so just."

Brookner, Anita on books - reading   

"A man of such obvious and exemplary charm must be a liar."

Brookner, Anita on charm
6 fans of this quote   

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

Brookner, Anita on thoughts and thinking   

"A complete woman is probably not a very admirable creature. She is manipulative, uses other people to get her own way, and works within whatever system she is in."

Brookner, Anita on women
6 fans of this quote   

"Good women always think it is their fault when someone else is being offensive. Bad women never take the blame for anything."

Brookner, Anita on women
6 fans of this quote   

"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."

Brookner, Anita on women
3 fans of this quote   

"Great writers are the saints for the godless."

Brookner, Anita on writers and writing
6 fans of this quote   

"Time misspent in youth is sometimes all the freedom one ever has."

Brookner, Anita on youth
5 fans of this quote   

"No blame should attach to telling the truth. But it does, it does."

Brookner, Anita on confession
6 fans of this quote