54 Justin Cartwright Quotes for You to Enjoy

Justin Cartwright

British Novelist

Born: 1945

Book Books Life People World You

Related authors: Anne Bronte Charles Morgan Charlotte Bronte Hector Hugh Munro Helen Oyeyemi Jeanette Winterson Roald Dahl Zadie Smith

This is the strange thing about South Africa - for all its corruption and crime, it seems to offer a stimulating sense that anything is possible. Justin Cartwright

Strange Corruption Crime South Africa Sense Possible About Seems Stimulating South Offer Africa Anything Anything Is Possible Strange Thing Thing

Historians and journalists always have agendas, but if I want to find out what's going on in South Africa, I read Nadine Gordimer or John Coetzee because they offer novelistic truth. Justin Cartwright

Truth South Africa Out Find John Journalists Read Because Always South Historians Offer Going Africa Want Agendas

The book that meant most to me was 'The Wind in the Willows.' It sounds ridiculous, but that was my vision of England. Justin Cartwright

Me Book Vision Wind Most Sounds Meant England Ridiculous

Someone once pointed out that there are quite a lot of animals in my books, and I'm sure that is something to do with 'The Wind in the Willows.' I must have picked up a rather anthropomorphic view of them. Justin Cartwright

Wind Animals Books Once Out Must Someone Something Rather Pointed Picked Sure Lot Up Quite Quite A Lot Them View

So often in English fiction, people are either upper-class twits, or else they're knockabouts, less than human. Justin Cartwright

People Else Than Upper-Class Often Human Fiction Either Less English

I was once asked by Jeremy Paxman what is it about celebrity and said that people these days seem to think a celebrity is someone who has escaped the constraints of ordinary people: that they don't have the same kind of problems, almost as if they're classical gods. Justin Cartwright

'The Cauliflower' is full of these bizarre anecdotes, some of them petty, others moving or whimsical, as its many characters try to make sense of the universe in which they live - a universe strange, febrile, and utterly unique. Justin Cartwright

The plane approaches Cape Town and, as always, I am astonished by the view of Table Mountain and the surrounding sea. It is so overwhelmingly beautiful that I feel the urge to belong - not necessarily to the people, but to the landscape. Justin Cartwright

Beautiful People Approaches Astonished Table Feel Town Always Am Surrounding Mountain Urge Cape Plane Landscape View Sea Necessarily Belong

Not many people like Johannesburg, but I love the place. Justin Cartwright

Love People Johannesburg Like Place Many

The fascination with Judas has persisted despite the fact that there is no evidence of the hard facts of his life. Even the 'Iscariot' attached to him may be nothing more significant than a corruption of the name of the town from which he came. Justin Cartwright

Writing 'Judas: The Troubling History of the Renegade Apostle' must have been a difficult task because there are no facts. Judas may quite possibly never have existed at all, and if he did, the Judas kiss may not have happened. Justin Cartwright

James McBride's 'The Good Lord Bird' is set in the mid-19th century and is based on the real life of John Brown, the one who lies a-mouldering in his grave. Justin Cartwright

Life Good Bird Real Life Good Lord Lies John John Brown Brown Lord Real His James Century Who Based Grave Set

If Franschhoek has a fault, it is in the lavish refurbishment of wine farms and estates which has reached absurd proportions. Some, like Graf Delaire Estate, are brand new, with jewellery shops, indoor streams, and very high-end lodges for rent at prices not many South Africans can afford. Justin Cartwright

Fault Wine Lavish Some High-End Proportions Prices Absurd Indoor New Like Reached Rent South Very Brand Brand New Afford Shops African Estate Estates Which Farms Many Streams Jewellery

Franschhoek Valley was, in recent memory, a simple place with some notable vineyards and two or three streets of Victorian cottages and a few older, thatched houses. The valley was settled early in the 1680s by Huguenots fleeing repression. Justin Cartwright

Memory Simple Three Few Older Settled Valley Some Houses Repression Place Notable Victorian Fleeing Streets Early Recent Two

Franschhoek - French Corner - is a place which serves South Africans as a kind of sophisticated fantasy, an alternative version of what life could be. The small town is enclosed by wild mountains, at this time of year blue and dusty green. Justin Cartwright

Life Time Year Mountains Corner Wild Kind Small Could Small Town Town Sophisticated French Alternative Enclosed South Version Green Blue Dusty African Place Which Fantasy Serve

Jim Crace's novels have one thing in common, which is that each is set in an entirely original world. None of these worlds is of a specific time or place, but they seem to have some connection to our own lives. Justin Cartwright

Coffee must be treated gently and smoothed out. I hadn't realised it was so temperamental. Justin Cartwright

Coffee Out Must Temperamental Gently Realised Treated

Complete barista-standard coffee machines cost from £1,600 to more than £20,000. Justin Cartwright

Coffee Complete Machines Cost More Than

Transport is not a ministry the ambitious should accept: no transport minister has gone on to be prime minister. Justin Cartwright

Gone Minister Ministry Prime Prime Minister Accept Ambitious Should Transport

Tom Fort, a BBC radio journalist, starts from the assumption that 'many of us have a road that reaches back into our past'. For him, this is the 92 miles of the A303 - as he subtitles his book, the 'Highway to the Sun'. Justin Cartwright

In Sydney, I gave what was billed as a masterclass to bright students of writing at the University of Sydney. But the term 'masterclass' was possibly over-egging the pudding. All I could do was pass on some lessons from my own life, and the most obvious is that if you want to be a writer, you must first have been a reader. Justin Cartwright

Life You Writing First Own Gave Possibly Must Some My Own Could Writer Students Term Most Obvious Reader Pass Been Want Lessons Bright Sydney Pudding University

'A Just Defiance' has been a huge success in South Africa. While reading at times like a well-written thriller, its significance is to reveal apartheid to have been far more brutal, ruthless, and self-serving even than we had suspected. Justin Cartwright

Success Defiance Reading South Africa Significance Has-Been More Thriller Ruthless Brutal Had Like Reveal Well-Written Been Self-Serving South Huge Times Than Suspected Just Africa While Apartheid Far Even

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