I am the worst judge of my books. John Banville More Quotes by John Banville More Quotes From John Banville I'm a hopeless 19th-century romantic. John Banville 19th-century hopeless century I would be far more critical than any reviewer could be of my own work. So I simply don't read them. John Banville reviewers critical would-be I think I'm less the writer than I'm the written. John Banville written thinking Dostoevsky is such a bad writer it is hard to take him seriously as a novelist, though he is a wonderful philosopher. John Banville philosopher novelists wonderful I like ideas. I find them more exciting than human behavior for the most part. John Banville behavior exciting ideas Life is tragic but it's equally comic. John Banville tragic comic life-is I don't make a distinction between men and women. To me they are just people. John Banville men-and-women men people Art is amoral, whether we accept this or not; it does not take sides. The finest fictions are cold at heart. John Banville sides fiction art ...being alone with him was like being in a room which someone had just violently left John Banville left rooms The effect of prizes on one's career - if that is what to call it - is considerable, since they give one more clout with publishers and more notoriety among journalists. The effect on one's writing, however, is nil - otherwise, one would be in deep trouble. John Banville careers writing giving We think we're living in the present, but we're really living in the past. John Banville live-in-the-present past thinking We artists love to talk tough, but we're just as sentimental as everyone else when it comes down to it. John Banville sentimental tough artist The novel is resilient, and so are novelists. John Banville resilient novelists novel The Booker Prize is a big, popular prize for big, popular books, and that's the way it should be. John Banville should book way Most crime fiction, no matter how 'hard-boiled' or bloodily forensic, is essentially sentimental, for most crime writers are disappointed romantics. John Banville sentimental matter fiction The first thought that occurred to me, that night when I heard the chairman of the jury announce my name, was, Just think how many people hate me at this moment. Naturally, I wanted to annoy those people even further by being arrogant. John Banville hate night thinking I live in Dublin, God knows why. There are greatly more congenial places I could have settled in - Italy, France, Manhattan - but I like the climate here, and Irish light seems to be essential for me and for my writing. John Banville climate light writing Throughout the 1960s and 1970s devoted Beckett readers greeted each successively shorter volume from the master with a mixture of awe and apprehensiveness; it was like watching a great mathematician wielding an infinitesimal calculus, his equations approaching nearer and still nearer to the null point. John Banville mixtures null math No two things the same, the equals sign a scandal. John Banville scandal two science I read Nietzsche when I was a teenager and then I went back to reading him when I was in my thirties, and his voice spoke directly to me. Nietzsche is such a superb literary artist. John Banville teenager artist reading
