I am the worst judge of my books. John Banville More Quotes by John Banville More Quotes From John Banville With the crime novels, its delightful to have protagonists I can revisit in book after book. Its like having a fictitious family. John Banville protagonists crime-novels book You will remember this when all else fades, this moment, here, together, by this well. There will be certain days, and certain nights, you’ll feel my presence near you, hear my voice. You’ll think you have imagined it and yet, inside you, you will catch an answering cry. On April evenings, when the rain has ceased, your heart will shake, you’ll weep for nothing, pine for what’s not there. For you, this life will never be enough, there will forever be an emptiness, where once the god was all in all in you. John Banville rain heart night The white May blossom swooned slowly into the open mouth of the grave. John Banville mouths white may If they give me the bloody prize, why can't they say nice things about me? John Banville bloody nice giving In my books you have to concentrate, but I work hard to make it that, when you do, the rewards are quite high. John Banville rewards hard-work book All I wanted was to be left alone. They abhor a vacuum, other people. You find a quiet corner where you can hunker down in peace, and the next minute there they are, crowding around you in their party hats, tooting their paper whistles in your face and insisting you get up and join in the knees-up. John Banville vacuums party people Perhaps all of life is no more than a long preparation for the leaving of it. John Banville leaving preparation long Ian McEwan is a very good writer; the first half of Atonement alone would ensure him a lasting place in English letters. John Banville half letters firsts Enormous morning, ponderous, meticulous; gray light streaking each bare branch, each single twig, along one side, making another tree, of glassy veins. John Banville light tree morning The telephone ringing gave me a dreadful start. I have never got used to this machine, the way it crouches so malevolently, ready to start clamouring for attention when you least expect it, like a mad baby. John Banville mad attention baby Yes, this is what I thought adulthood would be, a kind of long indian summer, a state of tranquility, of calm incuriousness, with nothing left of the barely bearable raw immediacy of childhood, all the things solved that had puzzled me when I was small, all mysteries settled, all questions answered, and the moments dripping away, unnoticed almost, drip by golden drip, toward the final, almost unnoticed, quietus. John Banville childhood summer long He knows that after him everything will continue on much as before, except that there will be a minuscule absence, a barely detective gap in the so-called grand scheme, one unit fewer now. Or not even that, not even an empty space where he once was, for all will rush immediately to fill that vacuum. Pft. Gone. Recollections of him will remain in the minds of others for a while, but presently those others too will die and his few relics with them. And then all will be dark. John Banville space fear dark That's one of the many things I hate about life, that it's a hideously cliched business. John Banville i-hate hate life How flat all sounds are at the seaside, flat and yet emphatic, like the sound of gunshots heard at a distance. John Banville flats distance sound The trouble with you, Vic," he said, "is that you think of the world as a sort of huge museum with too many visitors allowed in. John Banville museums world thinking I never went to university. I'm self-educated. I didn't go because I was too impatient, too arrogant. John Banville impatient arrogant self It's great people still care about books, and it's great you can still fashion a life from literature. John Banville fashion book people All a work of art can do is present the surface. I can't know the insides of people. I know very little about the inside of myself. John Banville littles people art I'm full of self-doubt. I doubt everything I do. Everything I do is a failure. John Banville self-doubt self doubt Doing what you do well is death. Your duty is to keep trying to do things that you don't do well, in the hope of learning. John Banville keep-trying duty trying
