Anita Brookner

I never learnt Hebrew because my health was fragile, and it was thought that learning Hebrew would be an added burden. I regret it, because I would like to be able to join in fully. Not that I am a believer, but I would like to be.

Great writers are the saints for the godless.

Good women always think it is their fault when someone else is being offensive. Bad women never take the blame for anything.

Existentialism is about being a saint without God; being your own hero, without all the sanction and support of religion or society.

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.

Real love is a pilgrimage. It happens when there is no strategy, but it is very rare because most people are strategists.

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.

The essence of romantic love is that wonderful beginning, after which sadness and impossibility may become the rule.

Old men should have more care to end life well than to live long.

I was a teacher most of my life, which I loved. I had a very happy working life, and when I retired, I thought I must do something, and I've always read a lot of fiction - you learn so much from fiction. My sentimental education came mostly from fiction, I should say, so I thought I'd try.

In real life, of course, it is the hare that wins. Every time. Look around you.

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.