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Pain hardens, and great pain hardens greatly, whatever the comforters say, and suffering does not ennoble, though it may occasionally lend a certain rigid dignity of manner to the suffering frame.

A. S. Byatt

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A. S. Byatt
Age: 88
Born: 1936
Born: August 24
Literary Critic
Novelist
Poet
University Teacher
Writer
Sheffield
England
Dame Antonia Susan Duffy
Antonia Susan Drabble
Antonia Susan Duffy
Doe
Occasionally
Ennoble
May
Manner
Hardens
Great
Dignity
Comforter
Though
Rigid
Suffering
Lend
Whatever
Heartbreak
Pain
Greatly
Certain
Frame
Comforters

More quotes by A. S. Byatt

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Only write to me, write to me, I love to see the hop and skip and sudden starts of your ink.
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One does not remember the winners. One remains haunted by the losers.
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...it is not possible to create the opposite of what one has always known, simply because the opposite is believed to be desired. Human beings need what they already know, even horrors.
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Cyclists. I really hate them. I wish they would not be so self-righteous and realise they are a danger to pedestrians. I wish cyclists would not vindictively snap off wing mirrors on cars when they were trying to cross in front of the car at a danger to motorists and pedestrians.
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Harm can come about without will or action. But will and action can avert harm.
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Everything is surprising, rightly seen.
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Where would we be without inhibitions? Theyre quite useful things when you look at some of the things humans do if they lose them.
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Once you get older, people stop listening to what you say. It's very agreeable once you get used to it.
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I think the names of colors are at the edge, between where language fails and where it's at its most powerful.
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You know, it's a truism that writers for children must still be children themselves, deep down, must still feel childish feelings, and a child's surprise at the world.
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Young girls are sad. They like to be it makes them feel strong.
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In our world of sleek flesh and collagen, botox and liposuction, what we most fear is the dissolution of the body-mind, the death of the brain.
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I did a lot of my writing as though I was an academic, doing some piece of research as perfectly as possible.
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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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Well, I would hardly say I do write as yet. But I write because I like words. I suppose if I liked stone I might carve. I like words. I like reading. I notice particular words. That sets me off.
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An odd phrase, by heart, he would add, as though poems were stored in the bloodstream.
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Mine the long night The secret place Where lovers meet In long embrace In purple dark In silvered kiss Forget the world And grasp your bliss
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Never stop paying attention to things. Never make your mind up finally. Do not hold beliefs.
A. S. Byatt
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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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I cannot bear not to know the end of a tale. I will read the most trivial things – once commenced – only out of a feverish greed to be able to swallow the ending – sweet or sour – and to be done with what I need never have embarked on. Are you in my case? Or are you a more discriminating reader? Do you lay aside the unprofitable?
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