Language tethers us to the world; without it we spin like atoms. Penelope Lively More Quotes by Penelope Lively More Quotes From Penelope Lively Born in Jerusalem, Wadie Said went from being a dragoman to a salesman in the United States and thence to a hugely successful businessman in Egypt. Penelope Lively egypt jerusalem successful In old age, you realise that while you're divided from your youth by decades, you can close your eyes and summon it at will. As a writer it puts one at a distinct advantage. Penelope Lively eye age science I'm not a historian but I can get interested - obsessively interested - with any aspect of the past, whether it's palaeontology or archaeology or the very recent past. Penelope Lively aspect science past We make choices but are constantly foiled by happenstance. Penelope Lively happenstance choices Getting to know someone else involves curiosity about where they have come from, who they are. Penelope Lively getting-to-know-someone curiosity knows I have had to empty two family homes during the last few years - first, the house that had been my grandmothers since 1923, and then my own country home, which we had lived in for over twenty years. Penelope Lively grandmother home country I have long been interested in landscape history, and when younger and more robust I used to do much tramping of the English landscape in search of ancient field systems, drove roads, indications of prehistoric settlement. Towns and cities, too, which always retain the ghost of their earlier incarnations beneath today's concrete and glass. Penelope Lively glasses cities science All I know for certain is that reading is of the most intense importance to me; if I were not able to read, to revisit old favorites and experiment with names new to me, I would be starved - probably too starved to go on writing myself. Penelope Lively reading names writing The consideration of change over the century is about loss, though I think that social change is gain rather than loss. Penelope Lively lost-friendship loss thinking Perhaps I shall not write my account of the Paleolithic at all, but make a film of it. A silent film at that, in which I shall show you first the great slumbering rocks of the Cambrian period, and move from those to the mountains of Wales...from Ordovician to Devonian, on the lush glowing Cotswolds, on to the white cliffs of Dover... An impressionistic, dreaming film, in which the folded rocks arise and flower and grow and become Salisbury Cathedral and York Minster. Penelope Lively flower dream moving You have this comet trail of your own lived life, sparks from which arrive in the head all the time, whether you want them or not - life has been lived but it is still all going on, in the mind for better and for worse. Penelope Lively sparks mind want I can walk about London and see a society that seems an absolutely revolutionary change from the 1950s, that seems completely and utterly different, and then I can pick up on something where you suddenly see that it's not. Penelope Lively london revolutionary different People die, but money never does. Penelope Lively money doe people Mythology is much better stuff than history. It has form; logic; a message. Penelope Lively logic messages stuff If people don't read, that's their choice; a lifelong book habit may itself be some sort of affliction. Penelope Lively reading book people I'm writing another novel and I know what I'm going to do after, which may be something more like this again, maybe some strange mixture of fiction and non-fiction. Penelope Lively mixtures writing fiction There's a fearful term that's in fashion at the moment - closure. People apparently believe it is desirable and attainable. Penelope Lively fashion believe people History unravels; circumstances, following their natural inclination, prefer to remain ravelled. Penelope Lively circumstances natural history You learn a lot, writing fiction. Penelope Lively writing-fiction writing fiction There's a preoccupation with memory and the operation of memory and a rather rapacious interest in history. Penelope Lively operations preoccupation memories
