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A complete woman is probably not a very admirable creature. She is manipulative, uses other people to get her own way, and works within whatever system she is in.

Anita Brookner

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Anita Brookner
Age: 87 †
Born: 1928
Born: July 16
Died: 2016
Died: March 10
Art Historian
Novelist
University Teacher
Writer
London
England
People
System
Probably
Manipulative
Within
Admirable
Whatever
Uses
Woman
Creature
Use
Complete
Women
Creatures
Way
Works

More quotes by Anita Brookner

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That sun, that light had faded, and she had faded with them. Now she was as grey as the season itself.
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I am 46, and have been for some time past.
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One loses the capacity to grieve as a child grieves, or to rage as a child rages: hotly, despairingly, with tears of passion. One grows up, one becomes civilized, one learns one's manners, and consequently can no longer manage these two functions - sorrow and anger - adequately.
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And without understanding, could each properly love the other?
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There are moments when you feel free, moments when you have energy, moments when you have hope, but you can't rely on any of these things to see you through. Circumstances do that.
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Fiction is the great repository of the moral sense. The wicked get punished.
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All good fortune is a gift of the gods, and you don't win the favor of the ancient gods by being good, but by being bold.
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Always let them think of you as singing and dancing.
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Writing has freed me from the despair of living.
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I need noise and interruptions and irritation: irritation and discomfort are a great starter. The loneliness of doing it any other way would kill me.
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Satire is dependent on strong beliefs, and on strong beliefs wounded.
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I suppose what one wants really is ideal company and books are ideal company.
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Death is only a small interruption.
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Romanticism is not just a mode it literally eats into every life. Women will never get rid of just waiting for the right man.
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Life... is not simply a series of exciting new ventures. The future is not always a whole new ball game. There tends to be unfinished business. One trails all sorts of things around with one, things that simply won't be got rid of.
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It will be a pity if women in the more conventional mould are to be phased out, for there will never be anyone to go home to.
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When you make a break for freedom you don't necessarily find company on the way.
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Real love is a pilgrimage. It happens when there is no strategy, but it is very rare because most people are strategists.
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It is best to marry for purely selfish reasons.
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A man of such obvious and exemplary charm must be a liar.
Anita Brookner