I see what is right and approve, but I do what is wrong. Anthony Burgess More Quotes by Anthony Burgess More Quotes From Anthony Burgess Bath twice a day to be really clean, once a day to be passably clean, once a week to avoid being a public menace. Anthony Burgess cleanliness baths week The possession of a book becomes a substitute for reading it. Anthony Burgess substitutes reading book One goes on writing partly because it is the only available way of earning a living. It is a hard way and highly competitive. My heart drops into my bowels when I enter a bookshop and see how fierce the competition is...There is also a privier reason for pushing on, and that is the hopeless hope that someday that intractable enemy language will yield to the struggle to control it... Mastery never comes, and one serves a lifelong apprenticeship. The writer cannot retire from the battle; he dies fighting. Anthony Burgess struggle heart writing Women thrive on novelty and are easy meat for the commerce of fashion. Men prefer old pipes and torn jackets. Anthony Burgess novelty fashion men Elgar is not manic enough to be Russian, not witty or pointilliste enough to be French, not harmonically simple enough to be Italian and not stodgy enough to be German. We arrive at his Englishry by pure elimination. Anthony Burgess italian simple witty I don't write out of fear. I write out of a strong urge to meet death on its own eternal terms, because the fact is that if you write as little as a page of prose-even bad prose-that is eternal. Anthony Burgess strong writing littles And to all others in this story profound shooms of lip music brrrrrr. And they can kiss my sharries. Anthony Burgess kissing stories profound That so many writers have been prepared to accept a kind of martyrdom is the best tribute that flesh can pay to the living spirit of man as expressed in his literature. One cannot doubt that the martyrdom will continue to be gladly embraced. To some of us, the wresting of beauty out of language is the only thing in the world that matters. Anthony Burgess literature doubt men A character, to be acceptable as more than a chess piece, has to be ignorant of the future, unsure about the past, and not at all sure of what he's supposed to be doing. Anthony Burgess chess-pieces character past Ignorance and poverty are the best condiments for the great feast of the world, but the inexperienced and poor are never invited to it. Anthony Burgess poverty ignorance world But, brothers, this biting of their toe-nails over what is the CAUSE of badness is what turns me into a fine laughing malchick. They don't go into what is the cause of GOODNESS, so why of the other shop? Anthony Burgess nails brother laughing But don't think that it's a system or a culture or a state or a person that does the letting down. It's our expectations that let us down. It begins in the warmth of the womb and the discovery that it's cold outside. But it's not the cold's fault that it's cold. Anthony Burgess expectations discovery thinking I was very lighthearted. This often the way when the abandonment of personal responsibility is enforced: neither wronged innocence or just guilt can seriously impair the sensation of freedom one has. Anthony Burgess guilt responsibility way A novelist should not be too intelligent either, although... he may be permitted to be an intellectual. Anthony Burgess intelligence intelligent intellectual It had been a wonderful evening and what I needed now, to give it the perfect ending, was a little of the Ludwig Van. Anthony Burgess perfect littles giving The meal was pretentious - a kind of beetroot soup with greasy croutons; pork underdone with loud vulgar cabbage, potato croquettes, tinned peas in tiny jam-tart cases, watery gooseberry sauce; trifle made with a resinous wine, so jammy that all my teeth lit up at once. Anthony Burgess meals wine vegetables All art preserves mysteries which aesthetic philosophers tackle in vain. Anthony Burgess philosopher mystery art I think art is sublimated libido. You can’t be a eunuch priest, and you can’t be a eunuch artist. Anthony Burgess priests art thinking Each man kills the thing he loves. Anthony Burgess broken-heart betrayal men If you expect the worst from a person, you can't ever be disappointed... The pessimist takes a sort of gloomy pleasure in observing the depths to which human behaviour can sink. The more sin he sees, the more his belief in Original Sin is confirmed. Everyone likes to have his deepest convictions confirmed; that is one of the most abiding of human satisfaction. Anthony Burgess abiding behaviour depth
