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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.

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
Ideas
Entirely
Look
Selfish
Begins
Looks
Decisions
Much
Decided
World
Decision
Promising
Idea
Healthier
Become
Selfishness

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When you make a break for freedom you don't necessarily find company on the way.
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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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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 suppose what one wants really is ideal company and books are ideal company.
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Always let them think of you as singing and dancing.
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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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The self-fulfilled woman is far from reality.
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The essence of romantic love is that wonderful beginning, after which sadness and impossibility may become the rule.
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Life is a pilgrimage and if you don't play by the rules you don't find the Road to Damascus, you find the Crown of Thorns.
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Writing has freed me from the despair of living.
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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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For once a thing is known, it can never be unknown. It can only be forgotten.
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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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I was brought up among the sort of self-important women who had a husband as one has an alibi.
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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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What is interesting about self-analysis is that it leads nowhere - it is an art form in itself.
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Satire is dependent on strong beliefs, and on strong beliefs wounded.
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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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The lessons taught in great books are misleading. The commerce in life is rarely so simple and never so just.
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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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