nothing is more restful than conformity. Elizabeth Bowen More Quotes by Elizabeth Bowen More Quotes From Elizabeth Bowen ...though one can be callous in Ireland one cannot be wholly opaque or material. An unearthly disturbance works in the spirit; reason can never reconcile one to life; nothing allays the wants one cannot explain. Elizabeth Bowen opaquespiritwant ... into the novel goes such taste as I have for rational behaviour and social portraiture. The short story, as I see it to be, allows for what is crazy about humanity: obstinacies, inordinate heroisms, "immortal longings. Elizabeth Bowen crazytastehumanity ... any fictionis bound to be transposed autobiography. Elizabeth Bowen boundsautobiographyfiction [My early stories] are the work of a living writer whom I know in a sense, but can never meet. Elizabeth Bowen storiesknowsfiction ... it appears to me that problems, inherent in any writing, loom unduly large when one looks ahead. Though nothing is easy, little is quite impossible. Elizabeth Bowen writinglittleslooks Art is for [the Irish] inseparable from artifice: of that, the theatre is the home. Possibly, it was England made me a novelist. Elizabeth Bowen theatrehomeart The novelist's--any writer's--object is to whittle down his meaning to the exactest and finest possible point. What, of course, isfatal is when he does not know what he does mean: he has no point to sharpen. Elizabeth Bowen novelistsdoemean [A writer] should try not to be too far, personally, below the level of his work. Elizabeth Bowen levelsshouldtrying Solitary and farouche people don't have relationships; they are quite unrelatable. If you and I were capable of being altogether house-trained and made jolly, we should be nicer people, but not writers. Elizabeth Bowen solitudehousepeople ... in nine out of ten cases the original wish to write is the wish to make oneself felt[ellipsis in source] the non-essential writer never gets past that wish. Elizabeth Bowen wishwritingpast A novel which survives, which withstands and outlives time, does do something more than merely survive. It does not stand still. It accumulates round itself the understanding of all these persons who bring to it something of their own. It acquires associations, it becomes a form of experience in itself, so that two people who meet can often make friends, find an approach to each other, because of this one great common experience they have had. Elizabeth Bowen readingtwopeople I am fully intelligent only when I write. I have a certain amount of small-change intelligence, which I carry round with me as, at any rate in a town, one has to carry small money, for the needs of the day, the non-writing day. But it seems to me I seldom purely think ... if I thought more I might write less. Elizabeth Bowen intelligentwritingthinking Temperamentally, the writer exists on happenings, on contacts, conflicts, action and reaction, speed, pressure, tension. Were he acontemplative purely, he would not write. Elizabeth Bowen thoughtfulwritingthinking Ireland is a great country to die or be married in. Elizabeth Bowen marriedliteraturecountry Writers do not find subjects; subjects find them. Elizabeth Bowen subjects With three or more people there is something bold in the air: direct things get said which would frighten two people alone and conscious of each inch of their nearness to one another. To be three is to be in public - you feel safe. Elizabeth Bowen moneyairrelationship Proust has pointed out that the predisposition to love creates its own objects; is this not also true of fear? Elizabeth Bowen empowermentcourageinspirational It is in this unearthly first hour of spring twilight that earth's almost agonized livingness is most felt. This hour is so dreadful to some people that they hurry indoors and turn on the lights. Elizabeth Bowen twilightspringpeople First love, with its frantic haughty imagination, swings its object clear of the everyday, over the rut of living, making him all looks, silences, gestures, attitudes, a burning phrase with no context. Elizabeth Bowen teenage-lovefirst-loveattitude Only in a house where one has learnt to be lonely does one have this solicitude for things. One's relation to them, the daily seeing or touching, begins to become love, and to lay one open to pain. Elizabeth Bowen painlonelylove
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