A. S. Byatt Quotes, Thinking Quotes

Think of this - that the writer wrote alone, and the reader read alone, and they were alone with each other.

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Thinking Quotes

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

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Book Quotes

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.

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Hate Quotes , Thinking Quotes

They took to silence. They touched each other without comment and without progression. A hand on a hand, a clothed arm, resting on an arm. An ankle overlapping an ankle, as they sat on a beach, and not removed. One night they fell asleep, side by side... He slept curled against her back, a dark comma against her pale elegant phrase.

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Beach Quotes , Dark Quotes

…words have been all my life, all my life--this need is like the Spider's need who carries before her a huge Burden of Silk which she must spin out--the silk is her life, her home, her safety--her food and drink too--and if it is attacked or pulled down, why, what can she do but make more, spin afresh, design anew….

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Home Quotes , Safety Quotes

I think there are a lot more important things than art in the world. But not to me.

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Art Quotes , Thinking Quotes

Once upon a time, when men and women hurtled through the air on metal wings, when they wore webbed feet and walked on the bottom of the sea, learning the speech of whales and the songs of the dolphins, when pearly-fleshed and jewelled apparitions of Texan herdsmen and houris shimmered in the dusk on Nicaraguan hillsides, when folk in Norway and Tasmania in dead of winter could dream of fresh strawberries, dates, guavas and passion fruits and find them spread next morning on their tables, there was a woman who was largely irrelevant, and therefore happy.

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Dream Quotes , Song Quotes

Never stop paying attention to things. Never make your mind up finally. Do not hold beliefs.

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Mind Quotes , Attention Quotes

She was a logical child, as far as children go. She did not understand how such a nice, kind, good God as the one they preyed to, could condemn the whole earth for sinfulness and flood it, or condemn his only Son to a disgusting death on behalf of everyone. This death did not seem to have done much good.

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Children Quotes , Nice Quotes

One does not remember the winners. One remains haunted by the losers.

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Doe Quotes , Loser Quotes

He felt changed, but there was no one to tell.

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Changed Quotes

I am a creature of my pen. My pen is the best of me.

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Best Of Me Quotes , Possession Quotes

I think vestigially there's a synesthete in me but not like a real one who immediately knows what colour Wednesday is.

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Real Quotes , Thinking Quotes

Biographies are no longer written to explain or explore the greatness of the great. They redress balances, explore secret weaknesses, demolish legends.

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Greatness Quotes , Secret Quotes

Narration is as much a part of human nature as breath and the circulation of the blood.

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Blood Quotes , Human Nature Quotes

Lists are a form of power.

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Lists Quotes

No mere human can stand in a fire and not be consumed.

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Fire Quotes , Possession Quotes

I think the virtue I prize above all others is curiosity.

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Thinking Quotes , Curiosity Quotes

There is a peculiar aesthetic pleasure in constructing the form of a syllabus, or a book of essays, or a course of lectures. Visions and shadows of people and ideas can be arranged and rearranged like stained-glass pieces in a window, or chessmen on a board.

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Book Quotes , Glasses Quotes

I'm not very interested in myself. I do have a deep moral belief that you should always look out at other things and not be self-centred.

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Tags : A. S. Byatt Quotes , Self Quotes , Looks Quotes