It is only when our characters and events begin to disobey us that they begin to live. John Fowles More Quotes by John Fowles More Quotes From John Fowles The pronoun is one of the most terrifying masks man has invented. John Fowles pronouns mask men Being an atheist is a matter not of moral choice, but of human obligation. John Fowles atheism choices atheist I do not plan my fiction any more than I normally plan woodland walks; I follow the path that seems most promising at any given point, not some itinerary decided before entry. John Fowles given path fiction Art's cruel. You can get away with murder with words. But a picture is like a window straight through to your inmost heart. John Fowles murder window art You put up with your voice and speak with it because you haven't any choice. But it's what you say that counts. John Fowles voice choices speak They looked down on her; and she looked up through them. John Fowles Baseball and cricket are beautiful and highly stylized medieval war substitutes, chess made flesh, a mixture of proud chivalry and base-in both senses-greed. John Fowles baseball beautiful war Each age, each guilty age, builds high walls around its Versailles; and personally I hate those walls most when they are made by literature and art. John Fowles wall hate art All pasts are like poems; one can derive a thousand things, but not live in them. John Fowles poetry thousand past The ordinary man is the curse of civilization. John Fowles ordinary men civilization The privileges of knowledge have to be bought at the cost of the consolations of ignorance. John Fowles privilege cost ignorance 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. John Fowles humanity perfect time Content is a word unknown to life; it is also a word unknown to man. John Fowles contentment men life Even more ominous ... is the fact that since the Second World War a new kind of intellectual has emerged in large numbers. ... he is only minimally interested in the proper intellectual significance of images and objects. Such people are not really intellectuals, but visuals ... A visual is more interested in style than in content ... A visual does not feel a rioting crowd being machine-gunned by the police, he simply sees a brilliant news photograph. John Fowles numbers war people To despise all effort is the greatest effort of all. John Fowles despise effort There are two kinds of hangover: in one you feel ill and incapable, in the other you feel ill and lucid. John Fowles hangover kind two Love is the mystery between two people, not the identity. John Fowles love-is two people The American myth is of free will in its simple, primary sense. One can choose oneself and will oneself; and this absurdly optimistic assumption so dominates the republic that it has bred all its gross social injustices. John Fowles republic optimistic simple We all write poems; it is simply that poets are the ones who write in words. John Fowles reading-poetry poetry writing One degrades oneself sometimes in the effort not to be lonely. John Fowles effort lonely sometimes
