A. S. Byatt Professions : Novelist Born : August 24, 1936 Browse All Authors Top 116 quotes by A. S. Byatt Dorothy was in that state human beings passed through at the beginning of a love affair, in which they desire to say anything and everything to the beloved, to the alter ego, before they have learned what the real Other can and can't understand, can and can't accept. A. S. Byatt ego real say-anything History, writing, infect after a time a man's sense of himself. A. S. Byatt writing men A beautiful woman, Simone Weil said, seeing herself in the mirror, knows "This is I." An ugly woman knows with equal certainty, "This is not I." Maud knew this neat division represented an over-simplification. The doll-mask she saw had nothing to do with her, nothing. A. S. Byatt dolls mirrors beautiful Literary critics make natural detectives. A. S. Byatt critics detectives natural ...it is not possible to create the opposite of what one has always known, simply because the opposite is believed to be desired. Human beings need what they already know, even horrors. A. S. Byatt horror opposites needs You did not so much mind being -conventionally- betrayed, if you were not kept in the dark, which was humiliating, or defined only as a wife and dependent person, which was annihilating. A. S. Byatt wife mind dark She didn't like to be talked about. Equally, she didn't like not to be talked about, when the high-minded chatter rushed on as though she was not there. There was no pleasing her, in fact. She had the grace, even at eleven, to know there was no pleasing her. She thought a lot, analytically, about other people's feelings, and had only just begun to realize that this was not usual, and not reciprocated. A. S. Byatt grace feelings people Mine the long night The secret place Where lovers meet In long embrace In purple dark In silvered kiss Forget the world And grasp your bliss A. S. Byatt kissing dark night Things are not what they seem. A. S. Byatt things-are-not-what-they-seem deceived seems …my Solitude is my Treasure, the best thing I have. A. S. Byatt treasure solitude peace Everything is surprising, rightly seen. A. S. Byatt surprising The individual appears for an instant, joins the community of thought, modifies it and dies; but the species, that dies not, reaps the fruit of his ephemeral existence. A. S. Byatt ephemeral community wisdom I was no good at being a child. A. S. Byatt children Harm can come about without will or action. But will and action can avert harm. A. S. Byatt avert harm action Well, I would hardly say I do write as yet. But I write because I like words. I suppose if I liked stone I might carve. I like words. I like reading. I notice particular words. That sets me off. A. S. Byatt reading stones writing One does not remember the winners. One remains haunted by the losers. A. S. Byatt loser doe remember Narration is as much a part of human nature as breath and the circulation of the blood.... storytelling is intrinsic to biological time, which we cannot escape. Life, Pascal said, is like living in a prison from which every day fellow prisoners are taken away to be executed. We are all, like Scheherazade, under sentence of death, and we all think of our lives as narratives, with beginnings, middles and ends. A. S. Byatt taken blood thinking Our days weave together the simple pleasures of daily life, which we should never take for granted, and the higher pleasures of Art and Thought which we may now taste as we please, with none to forbid or criticise. A. S. Byatt simple together art It's a terrible poison, writing. A. S. Byatt terrible poison writing Once you get older, people stop listening to what you say. It's very agreeable once you get used to it. A. S. Byatt age listening people Similar Authors Adam Johnson novelist Ivan Goncharov novelist Binnie Kirshenbaum novelist Bruce Jay Friedman novelist Buchi Emecheta novelist Bryce Courtenay novelist All Authors
