John Fowles
John Fowles
John Robert Fowleswas an English novelist of international stature, critically positioned between modernism and postmodernism. His work reflects the influence of Jean-Paul Sartre and Albert Camus, among others...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth31 March 1926
modern aphorism generalization
An aphorism is a generalization, therefore not modern.
fixed plans accidents
Follow the accident, fear the fixed plan--that is the rule.
pairs lone-wolf myth
Wolves don't hunt singly, but always in pairs. The lone wolf was a myth.
time perfect humanity
The supposed great misery of our century is the lack of time; our sense of that, not a disinterested love of science, and certainly not wisdom, is why we devote such a huge proportion of the ingenuity and income of our societies to finding faster ways of doing things - as if the final aim of mankind was to grow closer not to a perfect humanity, but to a perfect lightning-flash.
looks faces sometimes
We can sometimes recognize the looks of a century ago on a modern face; but never those of a century to come.
wonderland being-true felt
It was too exactly as imagined to be true. But I felt as gladly and expectantly disorientated, as happily and alertly alone, as Alice in Wonderland.
hazards plans preserves
There is no plan. All is hazard. And the only thing that will preserve us is ourselves.
live-by
The dead live." "How do they live?" "By love.
marry-me will-you-marry-me ask-me
Ask me to marry you." "Will you marry me?" "No.
crafts majority modern
The great majority of modern third-person narration is "I" narration very thinly disguised.
moon dying earth
The moon hung over the planet Earth, a dead thing over a dying thing.
romance mystery trouble
That's the trouble with provincial life. Everyone knows everyone and there is no mystery. No romance.
description chains
I knew words were like chains, they held me back . . . the act of description taints the description.
looks may pages
Hazard has conditioned us to live in hazard. All our pleasures are dependant upon it. Even though I arrange for a pleasure; and look forward to it, my eventual enjoyment of it is still a matter of hazard. Wherever time passes, there is hazard. You may die before you turn the next page.