“ I would not for the whole world diminish you. I know it is usual in these circumstances to protest—I love you for yourself alone—I love you essentially—and as you imply, my dearest, to mean by you ess… A.S. Byatt
“ He muttered to himself. Why bother. Why does this matter so much. What difference does it make to anything if I solve this blue and just start again. I could just sit down and drink wine. I could go a… A.S. Byatt
“ He had said she was provocative; so she was, she needed to prove she was there to be seen; but the proof always, contradictorily, drove her to further uncertain agony of guilt and self-distaste. A.S. Byatt
“ Dorothy looked at everything as though it might vanish. The bright daily pottery, the spice-jars, the sweep of the staircase, the pigeons in the stable yard. What had been real was now like a thick fi… A.S. Byatt
“ Coherence and closure are deep human desires that are presently unfashionable. But they are always both frightening and enchantingly desirable. Falling in love, characteristically, combs the appearanc… A.S. Byatt
“ Balzac's cynicism was always nevertheless romantic - such greed, such gusto. 'Le dégoût, c'est voir juste. Après la possession, l'amour voit juste chez les hommes.' Why should that be so? Why was disg… A.S. Byatt
“ Ash liked his characters at or over the edge of madness, constructing systems of belief and survival from the fragments of experience available to them. A.S. Byatt
“ Много по-късно той се събуди в просъница и реши, че чува морето, което от тази стая не беше невъзможно, но после осъзна, че тя безшумно хлипа. Протегна ръка и тя несръчно притисна лице във врата му -… A.S. Byatt
“ You are a born storyteller, said the old lady. You had the sense to see you were caught in a story, and the sense to see that you could change it to another one. A.S. Byatt
“ We are a Faustian generation, my dear--we seek to know what we are maybe not designed (if we are designed) to be able to know. A.S. Byatt
“ Too much meaning is bad at Toussaint.Reason must sleep, said Christabel. The stories come before the meanings, I said. As I said, reason must sleep, she said again. I do not believe all these explanat… A.S. Byatt
“ There were all sorts of small canals and cuts and runnels to be crossed. There were trees that had been shaped by steady blasts of wind, stunted and reaching sideways. Philip wanted to draw them. They… A.S. Byatt
“ Something new, they had said. They had a perfect day for it. A day with the blue and gold good weather of anyone's primitive childhood expectations, when the new, brief memory tells itself that this i… A.S. Byatt
“ She was a thinking child, and worked this out. It hurt her, unlike most knowledge, which was strength and pleasure. A.S. Byatt
“ She tells her love while half asleep, In the dark hours, With half-words whispered low: As Earth stirs in her winter sleep And puts out grass and flowers Despite the snow, … A.S. Byatt
“ Pomona’s Tom’s age and lucky enough to be as pretty as her name—so dangerous, don’t you think, giving romantic names to little scraps who may grow up as plain as doorposts. A.S. Byatt
“ Maud laughed, drily. Roland said, And then, really, what is it, what is this arcane power we have, when we see that everything is human sexuality? It's really powerlessness.Impotence, said Maud, leani… A.S. Byatt
“ Iron bars make a cage all right, and the more you look at them or reproduce them the more you know it’s a real cage. A.S. Byatt
“ Independent women must expect more of themselves, since neither men nor other more conventionally domesticated women will hope for anything, or expect any result other than utter failure. A.S. Byatt
“ How could he ever sleep, in such a roar of silence, how could he forgo a conscious moment of the bliss of solitude? He stretched arms and legs to all points of the compass and fell asleep almost immed… A.S. Byatt
