British Author Quotes

With an effort Ewing turned his gaze away from the far end of the bar. Slowly he spread out his hands on the table and examined them. Then he looked up at Wayne. His left eyelid had begun to quiver slightly like a leaf in a gentle breeze as he put the question, but the expression of his face remained unchanged. "Who's the new customer?" Ewing asked indolently.

You have this comet trail of your own lived life, sparks from which arrive in the head all the time, whether you want them or not - life has been lived but it is still all going on, in the mind for better and for worse.

Penelope Lively

At least half of my life's many mistakes can be safely put down to impetuosity: the other half derive from inertia.

Still-born Silence! thou that art
Floodgate of the deeper heart.

Richard Flecknoe

Again the violet of our early days Drinks beauteous azure from the golden sun, And kindles into fragrance at his blaze.

Ebenezer Elliott

Your worship is your furnaces, Which, like old idols, lost obscenes, Have molten bowels; your vision is Machines for making more machines.

Gordon Bottomley

The words you spoke were frenzied prayers to chemistry..

Carol Ann Duffy

People should always mind their own business. More trouble is caused in this world by interference than any other single thing.

Whatever enjoyment I might have had at the time would disappear overnight like snow melting on a warm roof.

Generally speaking, the best people nowadays go into journalism, the second best into business, the rubbish into politics and the shits into law

It's different when the person you love dies. There's an awful finality to death. But it is final. The end. And there's the funeral, family gatherings, grieving, all of those necessary rituals. And they help, believe me. When the object of your love just disappears, there's no way to deal with the grief and pain.

Barbara Taylor Bradford

Welcome, brave Hero, to this course Retreat,
Thou who excell'st whatever Rome call'd great;
Great as thou art, yet others of thy Name
Shall thee transcend in martial Acts and Fame.
Two shall their Names from Africa receive,
As Asia did to thee thy Glories give.

Oh dear,' said Eddie. 'We'd better hurry. Tinto, call me a cab.' All right,' said Tinto. 'You're a cab.

Cats, no less liquid than their shadows,
Offer no angles to the wind.
They slip, diminished, neat, through loopholes
Less than themselves.

A. S. J. Tessimond

I never like anyone till I've seen him at his worst.

I'm never happier than when I can write about draining swimming pools and abandoned hotels.

Nobody hopped into a wardrobe to find Narnia; they hopped in, thinking it was just a wardrobe. They didn't climb up the Faraway Tree, knowing it was a Faraway Tree; they thought it was just a really big tree. Harry Potter thought he was a normal boy; Mary Poppins was supposed to be a regular nanny. It's the first and only rule. Magic comes when you're not looking for it

He that will live in this World, must be endu'd with the three rare Qualities of Dissimulation, Equivocation, and mental Reservation.

My guard will run you through if he catches you looking at my face," said Arianna. "I don't think so. I think it might be treason to kill a duke," said Luciano. "But you're not a duke," said Arianna. "I will be if you marry me," said Luciano. "Yes, you would be," said Arianna. "Would?" "If you are asking me." "I'm asking." "And if I accepted." "Do you?" "I do. With all my heart.

As I go musing through this mournful land
Soothed by the pine-tree's solemn harmony,
Thy well-loved image comes and walks by me.
I seem to hold thee by the gentle hand
And talk of things I dimly understand,
That thy dear spirit set to mine may be
As to an intricate lock the simple key.

Yes, I tell you, it had a real savage splendour in the days when we found that no one couldn't sit on our faces any more because we'd loot to spend at last, and our world was to be our world, the one we wanted and not standing on the doorstep of somebody else's waiting for honey, perhaps.

Like beauteous flowers which vainly waste their scent
Of odours in unhaunted deserts.

William Chamberlayne

But we'll stumble on, she and I, into our messy future. And we'll have each other.

Use all the willpower at your disposal to make yourself happy. Construct the right stories about yourself - and believe them!

The solar system is like a roulette gone mad, and the earth is the ball. It's been rolling for millions of years; what's going to happen if it stops? What hole will the ball plump into? Thirty-six - A pocketful of money for everybody - or zero? And the eternal banker sweeps up the stakes?