38 A. S. Byatt Quotes for You to Enjoy

A. S. Byatt

English Novelist

Born: Aug 24, 1936

About Always People Think World You

Related authors: Aldous Huxley Charles Dickens E. M. Forster J. R. R. Tolkien Thomas Hardy William Golding William Makepeace Thackeray

We talk about feelings. And about sex. And about bodies, and their gratification, violation, repair, decoration, deferred, maybe permanently deferred, mortality. Feelings are a bodily thing, and respecting them is called, is, kindness. A. S. Byatt

Kindness Sex Feelings Deferred Respecting About Mortality Talk Permanently Repair Maybe Them Bodies Decoration Bodily Gratification Thing Violation

For a long time, I felt instinctively irritated - sometimes repelled - by scientific friends' automatic use of the word 'mechanism' for automatic bodily processes. A machine was man-made; it was not a sentient being; a man was not a machine. A. S. Byatt

I'm more interested in books than people, and I always expect everybody else to be, but they're not. A. S. Byatt

People Everybody Everybody Else Else Books More Always Expect Than Interested

Cyclists. I really hate them. I wish they would not be so self-righteous and realise they are a danger to pedestrians. I wish cyclists would not vindictively snap off wing mirrors on cars when they were trying to cross in front of the car at a danger to motorists and pedestrians. A. S. Byatt

Hate Car Wish Pedestrian Danger Would Cross Wing Mirrors Self-Righteous Were Snap Off Trying Front Realise Them Really Cyclists

There are things I take sides about, like capital punishment, which it seems to me there is only one side about: it is evil. But there are two or three sides to sexual harassment, and the moment you get into particular cases, there is injustice in every conceivable direction. It's a mess. A. S. Byatt

Me You Injustice Evil Three Every Side Sides Punishment Sexual About Cases Seems Direction Only Take Particular Like Mess Get Which Capital Capital Punishment Harassment Moment Things Two

I have a dreadful fear that the more you try to prevent revealing the self, the more you do. A. S. Byatt

You Fear Try Dreadful More Prevent Self Revealing

I think literary theory has not been terribly good for English studies in a while. It's not that theory isn't interesting, but it isn't about books, or the idiosyncrasies and complexities of putting language together. A. S. Byatt

Good Together Language Think Books Complexities About Studies Putting Terribly Idiosyncrasies Been Literary While Interesting Theory English

I think the virtue I prize above all others is curiosity. If you look really hard at almost anybody, and try to see why they're doing what they're doing, taking a dig at them ceases to be what you want to do even if you hate them. A. S. Byatt

Reading a newspaper is like reading someone's letters, as opposed to a biography or a history. The writer really does not know what will happen. A novelist needs to feel what that is like. A. S. Byatt

Needs History Will Reading Someone Writer Feel Like Know Does Opposed Happen Newspaper Really Novelist Letters Biography

What I need to write well is a combination of heat, light and solitude. A. S. Byatt

Solitude Light Write Combination Well Heat Need

In novels in general - and also on the television - we do live in a world where bodies is what we are. We do not talk about the spirit or the soul, and there is a sense that we no longer talk about beliefs, either Freudian or Marxist. A. S. Byatt

Soul World Sense Live Television Spirit About General Marxist Longer Talk Also Where Either Bodies Novels Beliefs

I am not sure how much good is done by moralising about fairy tales. This can be unsubtle - telling children that virtue will be rewarded, when in fact it is mostly simply the fact of being the central character that ensures a favourable outcome. Fairy tales are not, on the whole, parables. A. S. Byatt

Good Character Will Virtue Telling Outcome Favourable About Fact Simply Tales Mostly Fairy Sure Fairy Tales How Am How Much Done Rewarded Being Children In Fact Central Much Whole

There is a certain aesthetic pleasure in trying to imagine the unimaginable and failing, if you are a reader. A. S. Byatt

You Pleasure Failing Reader Aesthetic Trying Unimaginable Certain Imagine

The true exercise of freedom is - cannily and wisely and with grace - to move inside what space confines - and not seek to know what lies beyond and cannot be touched or tasted. A. S. Byatt

Freedom Grace Space Lies Inside Seek Touched True Wisely Beyond Know Exercise Tasted Move Confines Cannot

I grew up with that completely fictive idea of motherhood, where the mother never strayed from the kitchen. All the women in my books are very afraid that if they do anything with their minds they won't be complete women. I don't think my daughters' generation has that feeling. A. S. Byatt

It's a terrible poison, writing. A. S. Byatt

Writing Poison Terrible

I am not an academic who happens to have written a novel. I am a novelist who happens to be quite good academically. A. S. Byatt

Good Written Academic Academically Am Quite Happens Who Novel Novelist

When I was a child - in wartime, pre-television - books were my life. A. S. Byatt

Life My Life Books Were Child Wartime

A surprising number of people - including many students of literature - will tell you they haven't really lived in a book since they were children. Sadly, being taught literature often destroys the life of the books. A. S. Byatt

Life You Book People Will Books Destroys Tell Students Since Sadly Were Surprising Often Taught Being Children Literature Really Many Including Lived Number

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