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Time misspent in youth is sometimes all the freedom one ever has.

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
Misspent
Youth
Freedom
Ever
Sometimes
Time

More quotes by Anita Brookner

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To remain pure, a novel has to cast a moral puzzle. Anything else is mere negotiation.
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You have no idea how promising the world begins to look once you have decided to have it all for yourself. And how much healthier your decisions are once they become entirely selfish.
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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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The self-fulfilled woman is far from reality.
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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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Always let them think of you as singing and dancing.
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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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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.
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I am 46, and have been for some time past.
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I think you always feel braver in another language.
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Problems of human behavior still continue to baffle us, but at least in the Library we have them properly filed.
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Writing novels preserves you in a state of innocence - a lot passes you by - simply because your attention is otherwise diverted.
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You never know what you will learn till you start writing. Then you discover truths you never knew existed.
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Death is only a small interruption.
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For once a thing is known, it can never be unknown. It can only be forgotten.
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You can never betray the people who are dead, so you go on being a public Jew the dead can't answer slurs, but I'm here. I would love to think that Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, but he doesn't.
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I suppose what one wants really is ideal company and books are ideal company.
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The lessons taught in great books are misleading. The commerce in life is rarely so simple and never so just.
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What is interesting about self-analysis is that it leads nowhere - it is an art form in itself.
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The evening passes somehow I watch television with Nancy, or I write. It is difficult, not having a family, and it is difficult to explain. I always go to bed early. And I am always ready for Monday morning, that time that other people dread.
Anita Brookner