31 Lawrence Osborne Quotes for You to Enjoy

Lawrence Osborne

British Novelist

Life Live Me People World You

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

Thailand was never a European colony, so even though the city is very Western on the surface, deep down it's very Asian. It's quite enigmatic, and I like that. I can't get to the bottom of Bangkok, and I never will. Lawrence Osborne

I think humans are migratory animals. Lawrence Osborne

Animals Think Humans

I'll wager there isn't a human being on earth who doesn't believe in luck, however rational they pretend to be in public life. In reality, most of human life is luck - and, of course, its darker, more prevalent opposite. One only has to live long enough to experience both. Lawrence Osborne

Life Experience Reality Human Being Long Live Luck Believe Enough Earth Pretend Darker More Only Both Rational Most Course Wager Opposite However Human Being Public Human Life Public Life Who

Muslims do drink, as anyone who has spent a wild weekend with Saudi booze tourists in Bahrain will know. Those Saudi tourists are like teenage girls in Manchester on a Saturday night. But each country and region is different. Lawrence Osborne

Will Girl Country Teenage Wild Teenage Girls Spent Those Muslims Booze Drink Weekend Tourists Bahrain Like Know Manchester Different Anyone Region Who Each Saturday Saturday Night Saudi Night

I don't know where this thing about me being a travel writer comes from. It's nothing to do with me; I hate travel writing. I don't do it - I do it a little bit, but not much. I don't believe in it. I think it's over. The world is so saturated now that you don't need it. Lawrence Osborne

More than 700 years ago, the Song Dynasty artist Zheng Sixiao created perhaps the most beautiful image of orchids ever painted, 'Ink Orchid.' And still famous today is a thousand-year-old poem from the Tang Dynasty called 'Orchid and Orange.' Lawrence Osborne

The Gobi is in many ways like the old American West, filled with abandoned hamlets and buildings, traces of disappeared peoples. Across its oceanic blond grass, horses and the black silhouettes of camels move languidly, as if they are the only inhabitants. Ancient Turkic nomads left enigmatic petroglyphs carved into boulders 2,000 years ago. Lawrence Osborne

People Old Black Grass Ways Ancient Abandoned Carved Only Horses Disappeared Like Traces Buildings Camels West Years Years Ago Blond Left American Move Across Inhabitants Many Filled Enigmatic

I've got everything against likable characters. Likable characters are usually completely forgettable, and we don't really care. I think we love villains... precisely because they show us these disturbing complexities that I don't think nice characters do. Lawrence Osborne

Love Care Nice Think Everything Complexities Characters Disturbing Likable Because Got Precisely Against Us Really Show Villains

My grandfather was an amazing cap-in-hand guy. Lawrence Osborne

Amazing Guy Grandfather

To me, the contemporary novel suffers from a lack of sense of place - or spirit of place, if you will. It's not important to most writers, I must assume, or they try to research a given background on sabbatical. Not for me. I write about places I've lived long before I ever set pen to paper. Lawrence Osborne

Me You Try Will Long Important Before Sense Research Assume Background Paper Pen Must Spirit About Given Sabbatical Write Writers Most Contemporary Lack Place Places Novel Lived Ever Suffers Set

There's a distinct unease about Americans when they are outside the United States. I can't say quite what it is, but they are easily spooked or driven to cynicism - the country is diverse but, paradoxically, extremely insular. Lawrence Osborne

Country Extremely Distinct Say States Easily Paradoxically About Diverse Driven Outside Insular Unease American Quite Cynicism United United States

I've spent most of my adult life in the United States, and there the celebrity culture has been entrenched for a long time. It has made people almost literally insane, even those who make a great show of repudiating it. Those people, like novelists, who can no longer enjoy this status are condemned to despise it. Lawrence Osborne

Life Time Great Culture People Made Long Long Time Enjoy Despise Spent States Those Insane Has-Been Status Entrenched Adult Adult Life Great Show Almost Longer Like Most Make Condemned Been Celebrity Celebrity Culture Literally Show Who Even Novelists United United States

One winter, I went to Erfoud to research trilobites and got to know the quarries, the dealers, and the remote mining villages. They are not easy places to visit, and this was a completely unknown corner of the world economy: children slaving away on desert cliffs to furnish wealthy collectors in San Francisco. Lawrence Osborne

Winter World Research Corner Unknown Furnish Francisco Visit Mining Wealthy Easy Collectors Remote Economy Know Dealers Got Cliffs Children San San Francisco Places Villages Desert World Economy Away

I read Gide's 'The Immoralist' over and over as a teenager. I was obsessed with it. It's written with such simplicity and dread, and the desert, the shabby colonial world, is brought right into your consciousness without being over-explained. Lawrence Osborne

World Simplicity Teenager Dread Shabby Brought Colonial Written Obsessed Over Read Without Being Your Desert Right Consciousness

I grew up in the small town of Haywards Heath, south of London. Lawrence Osborne

London Small Small Town Town South Up Heath Grew

My parents were bookish, very musical, but otherwise uninvolved in the arts or the academic world. Lawrence Osborne

World Parents Otherwise Musical Academic Were Very Arts

The drinker is a Dionysiac, a dancer who sits still, a mocker. He doesn't need your seriousness or your regard. He just needs a little quiet music and a gentle freedom from priests. Lawrence Osborne

Music Needs Freedom Dancer Drinker He Priests Freedom From Gentle Still Quiet Just Regard Little Your Who Seriousness Need

The English are very indulgent to episodes of alcoholic insanity. Lawrence Osborne

Insanity Indulgent Very Episodes English

At the end of the 18th century, a young British explorer named George Bogle became one of the first Westerners to penetrate the mysterious and reclusive realm of Druk Yul, or 'Dragon Land.' Lawrence Osborne

First Young Reclusive Penetrate Mysterious Named Became George End Land Century Realm Explorer British Dragon

Arak means 'sweat' in Arabic, and it is the perfect Mediterranean after-dinner drink, in my opinion. Lawrence Osborne

Mediterranean Arabic Drink Perfect Opinion In My Opinion Sweat Means

So many writers live their whole lives in rooms. You can be too civilised in the environment you have around you, too oriented towards speaking engagements and literary festivals and dinner parties. That has no interest for me these days. You get to a point where you don't care anymore. At that point, you can start to write. Lawrence Osborne

Me You Care Dinner Live Too Dinner Parties No Interest Civilised Point Write Writers Environment Towards Days Parties Around Festivals Get Where Anymore Literary Interest Rooms Engagements Speaking Oriented Many Whole Lives Start

Sometimes you can publish a first novel in a kind of lyrical flourish, but it is not really a lyrical form. The beautiful truths about the world are more hard won than that. Novels should be bleach boned. It's a question of cumulative observation and lived suffering. It takes time. Lawrence Osborne

Beautiful Time You Suffering World Sometimes First Publish Lyrical Kind About More Observation Takes Question Cumulative Won Than Truths Form Really Should Hard Novel Novels Lived Flourish

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