Anita Brookner
Anita Brookner
Anita Brookner, CBEwas a British award-winning novelist and art historian. She was Slade Professor of Fine Art at the University of Cambridge from 1967 to 1968 and was the first woman to hold this visiting professorship. She was awarded the 1984 Man Booker Prize for her novel Hotel du Lac...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionHistorian
Date of Birth16 July 1938
Anita Brookner quotes about
betrayal people sunbeams
You can never betray the people who are dead.
winning favors ancient
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.
philosophical hero support
Existentialism is about being a saint without God; being your own hero, without all the sanction and support of religion or society.
jesus thinking people
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.
women home pity
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.
liars lying men
A man of such obvious and exemplary charm must be a liar.
I'm a middle-class, middle-brow novelist. And that's it. It amuses me.
bleak
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 acceptable.
came education fiction happy learn life mostly teacher
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 from fiction. My sentimental education came mostly from fiction, I should say, so I thought I'd try.
contention english-historian time
It is my contention that Aesop was writing for the tortoise market. hares have no time to read.
english-historian
In real life, of course, it is the hare that wins. Every time. Look around you.
added health hebrew join learning learnt
I never learnt Hebrew because my health was fragile, and it was thought that learning Hebrew would be an added burden. I regret it, because I would like to be able to join in fully. Not that I am a believer, but I would like to be.
english-historian life men
Old men should have more care to end life well than to live long.
doubt married six
If I were happy, married with six children, I wouldn't be writing. And I doubt if I should want to.