18 Peter Ackroyd Quotes for You to Enjoy

Peter Ackroyd

British Author

Born: Oct 5, 1949

History Me People Sense Work You

Related authors: Dorothy L. Sayers George Eliot George Orwell Ian Fleming James Allen Marcus Buckingham Neil Gaiman Virginia Woolf

I don't know if I have a voice of my own. I don't see me being an important person with something to say. I haven't. I've got nothing to say. My opinion is of no consequence or value. Peter Ackroyd

Me Value Important Own Nothing Say See Something My Own Voice Know Important Person Opinion Got Person Being Consequence

Why should a novelist not also be a historian? To force unnatural divisions within the English language is to work against its capacious and accommodating nature. To expect a writer to produce only novels, or only histories, is equivalent to demanding from a composer that he or she write only string quartets or piano sonatas. Peter Ackroyd

Work Nature Language Demanding String Unnatural Composer Only Write Piano Writer He Divisions He Or She Also She Force Within Equivalent Historian Histories Expect Against Produce Should English English Language Novelist Novels Why

I think biography can be more personal than fiction, and certainly can be more expressive. Peter Ackroyd

Think More Than Personal Fiction Certainly Expressive Biography

All cities are impressive in their way, because they represent the aspiration of men to lead a common life; those people who wish to live agreeable lives, and in constant intercourse with one another, will build a city as beautiful as Paris. Peter Ackroyd

Life Beautiful People Will Men Wish Build Live Way Those Cities City Constant Paris Lead Another Because Impressive Represent Common Intercourse Aspiration Who Agreeable Lives

There are two types of people, you see. One type keep their heads straight, and look around as they walk. The others look up - at the tops of houses, at the eaves and the lintels and the roofs, which can tell you when they were built - and I've always done that. Peter Ackroyd

I love soap operas - the stories, the plots! And I love the game shows and the courtroom dramas and the detectives - Jessica Fletcher, 'Columbo,' 'Perry Mason,' 'L.A. Law.' Any sense of guilt appeals to me in a television program - a sense of guilt, or a sense of making a lot of money. Peter Ackroyd

Love Me Game Money Law Guilt Sense Dramas Television Plots Detectives Mason Operas Making Courtroom Lot Perry Any Soap Stories Soap Operas Game Shows Appeals Shows Jessica Program

In London, I've always lived within 10 miles of where I was born. You see, there is something called a spirit of place, and my place happens to be London, at least once a fortnight. Peter Ackroyd

You Once See London Born Spirit Something Within Always Least Where Happens Place Fortnight Miles Lived

I have always believed that the material world is governed by nonmaterial sources, so that in that sense 'English Music' is an exercise in the spiritual as well as the material. I have always been attracted to the Gothic and spiritual imagination, and I've always been interested in visionaries. Peter Ackroyd

Music Spiritual World Sense Imagination Visionaries Attracted Well Exercise Always Material Gothic Material World Governed Been Sources Interested English Believed

Health, money. That's what people worried about in the 14th century as much as today. I find it so much more interesting than the supposed activities of kings, queens, generals. Peter Ackroyd

Today Health People Money Worried Find Kings About More Generals Supposed Queens Than Interesting Century Much Activities

I detest self-regard. If my work has taught me anything, it is that self-aggrandisement is completely unhistorical. Peter Ackroyd

Work Me Detest Taught Anything

I don't find myself interesting as a person and the details I find boring, quite frankly. You could sum it up in a few words or sentences really: came from nothing. Self-educated. Luck. Energy. Curiosity. Ambition. That's it. Nothing at all can illuminate the work as far as I can tell. Peter Ackroyd

Work Myself You Words Ambition Few Energy Nothing Luck Sum Frankly Tell Details Find Boring Could Came Up Curiosity Person Quite Quite Frankly As Far As Interesting Sentences Far Really Illuminate

I enjoyed reading and learning at school, and at university I enjoyed extending my reading and learning. Once I left Cambridge, I went to Yale as a fellow. I spent two years there. After that, George Gale made me literary editor of 'The Spectator.' Peter Ackroyd

If I did only one thing at a time I'd think I was wasting my time. If, for example, I only wrote novels I would feel like a charlatan and a fraud. Peter Ackroyd

Time Example Think Fraud Would One Thing Only My Time Only One Thing Feel Like For Example Wrote Did Novels Thing Wasting

I don't in any sense think of myself as a celebrity, which of course I'm not. Peter Ackroyd

Myself Sense Think Course Celebrity Any Which

Oh, I just tend to believe in things when I'm writing them. For instance, when I was writing 'Doctor Dee,' I believed in magic. And when I wrote 'Hawksmoor' I believed in psychic geography. But as soon as I type the last full stop, I'm back to being a complete blank again. Peter Ackroyd

Writing Doctor Psychic Believe Type Back Complete Magic Tend Blank Instance Soon Wrote Geography Oh Just Stop Being Again Them Full Believed Things Last

In so far as I have any beliefs, I suppose I'm like that old Peggy Lee song, 'Is That All There Is?' I want to believe there's something else going on, but what that something else is I don't pretend to know. Peter Ackroyd

Song Old Believe Else Peggy Peggy Lee Pretend Something Something Else Suppose Like Know Lee Any Going Want Far Beliefs

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