Novelists From The United Kingdom

"A thing is no sooner out of fashion than it begins to appear antique; and the literary movements of the are already discounted as a curiosity by the rising generation. The attitude is natural enough; and yet, if the truth be realized, the despised were actually the seed-time of the most characteristic literary harvest of to-day. The apostolic succession of literature is indeed always developing new phases. Without Mr. Kipling there would have been no Mr. Masefield; and it is undoubtedly to the faded audacities of Mr. Arthur Symons and Mr. Richard Le Gallienne that we owe the mor strenuous frankness of Mr. Gilbert Cannan and Rupert Brooke."

"In February 1911 Gilbert had joined the , proposed by , the playwright, and seconded by and Reginald Geard."

"of an event is unlikely to be interesting after it and this may be the reason why my prophetic utterances regarding the Great War took the form of Satire."

"I nothing know but that I nothing know, And therefore I sing merrily. I sit and watch the thronging moments go, Each taking life from me."

"Bad art has always been used as an escape from life; good art admits of no escape and forces a man to see himself in a glass clearly."

"Yes, let Art go, if it must be That with it men must starve — If Music, Painting, Poetry Spring from the wasted hearth.Nay, brothers, sing us battle songs With clear and ringing rhyme; Nay, show the world its hateful wrongs, And bring the better time!"

"It’s one thing to be looked at, and another to be seen."

"You have always thought if you opened your mouth in open water you would drown, but if you didn't open your mouth you would suffocate. So here you are, drowning."

"What you're trying to say is that it's easier for you to hide in your own darkness, than emerge cloaked in your own vulnerability. Not better, but easier. However the longer you hold it in, the more likely you are to suffocate. At some point, you must breathe."

"Every time you remember something, the memory weakens, as you’re remembering the last recollection, rather than the memory itself. Nothing can remain in tact. Still, it does not stop you wanting, does not stop you longing."

"You ache. You ache all over. You are aching to be you, but you're scared of what it means to do so."

"You know that to love is both to swim and to drown. You know to love is to be a whole, partial, a joint, a fracture, a heart, a bone. It is to bleed and heal. It is to be in the world, honest. It is to place someone next to your beating heart, in the absolute darkness of your inner, and trust they will hold you close. To love is to trust, to trust is to have faith. How else are you meant to love? You knew what you were getting into, but taking the Underground, returning home with no certainty of when you will see her next, it is terrifying."

"It's easier to hide in your own darkness, than to emerge, naked and vulnerable, blinking in your own light."

"What we generally fall to realize is that in talking today to the IndIans we are face to face with the direct descendants, as often as not, of people who were contemporaries of Ancient Egypt, and whose present culture, in most of its mam essentials, is nearly the same as It was then, and is in any event directly descended from that age, and even possibly before it."

"[On the early years of the AIDS crisis in New York City.] It was 1982 when we figured that something was really wrong. It was terrible — a kind of plague. I was 33 and the average age of the guys I knew was 36. Between 1979 and 84, about 35 of them died. All in the most horrific way. What was so awful was that everyone thought it was contagious, so they weren’t allowed in the hospital. People stopped shaking hands or kissing when they saw each other. Ivan got ill in 1983. That’s when the lesions started showing up on his face and people would run from us in the street."

"Nick Griffin and many viewers, I’m sure, would have wanted, even expected, me to come across as an abrasive, point-scoring, shouty, finger-pointing black woman. That would have played into Griffin’s game plan, because that is the view of his party. The BNP portrayed me as a "black history fabricator" on its website. There was no way that I was going to live up to any negative mental pictures that it would have had about me, or of any other black woman. Even at the risk of looking "ineffective"."

"Too often, America - the Atlantic model - is cited in policymaking for black Britain. Aside from our similar racial origins, however, black America and black Britain have less in common than meets the eye. Black America is largely monolithic and our roots tend to be Southern Baptist and rural. We have roughly the same accent as a result of segregation and its consequent restriction of movement. We have lived continuously on American soil, most of that time in slavery, for more than half a millennium. (These, by the way, are some of the elements that make Barack Obama seem alien to many black Americans.) Black Britain, on the other hand, is international. It is urban. It has no rural history in this country. Within the living experience and memory of all black Britons are other countries, other cultures. And ironically, because of the impact of biraciality, the term "black" may not define black Britain in the future at all. Therefore, black Britain should concentrate on life as lived here."

"The last time I saw him was at the Columbia medical centre. I walked past this room and saw a guy who looked about 75 and really sick — all shrivelled up, with no hair or teeth. It took me a moment to realise it was Ivan. His body looked lifeless, like there was no blood or sweat in him. But even when he was this bag of bones that could hardly move, he still said that all he needed was rehabilitation and he would get better. Inside I was screaming and thinking: "How could this happen?" But on the outside I was saying: "Yeah, we’ll see what we can do." After the funeral I left for London. The theatre scene in New York had been decimated, and with so many people dying around me I felt it was important that I made the most of my life. I needed to escape the shadow of death."

"The holes in your life are permanent. You have to grow around them, like tree roots around concrete; you mould yourself through the gaps."

"Some days I feel so bad that I have to drink; some days I feel so bad that I can’t."

"It’s impossible to resist the kindness of strangers. Someone who looks at you, who doesn’t know you, who tells you it’s OK, whatever you did, whatever you’ve done: you suffered, you hurt, you deserve forgiveness."

"I have never understood how people can blithely disregard the damage they do by following their hearts."

"People think it's terribly sad to spend Christmas alone, but it's no sadder, really, than spending any other day alone, is it?"

"Let’s be honest: women are still only really valued for two things—their looks and their role as mothers."

"Book/Play2 (Book/Play2)"

"Who was it, I wonder, who decided that heartbroken relatives should host a party at the very moment all they wished for was to be left alone to grieve?"

"How much more tuneful are the birds of the woods than the birds of the water. Ducks and geese make their raucous racket without once finding a note of sweetness, whilst these tree dwellers are practiced in the art of melody."

"Knowledge cannot be unknown. Experience cannot be unlived."

"And secrets are dangerous. They start small but grow with every evasive answer or outright lie that protects them. Nevertheless, I confess to finding the closeness such conspiracy breeds irresistibly delicious."

"Nevertheless, disease and misfortune knew no social bounds. Nor did the immensely dangerous business of childbirth"

"And as for company … I do not crave the companionship of other women, for I have never found one who did not judge me against herself and find me either to be envied or pitied. As for the friendship of men … well, when the day comes when one is man enough to treat me as his equal, then, only then, will I allow desire to be my guide."

"Poverty has a way of taking the edge off principles. Hunger can blunt them altogether"

"Book/Play1 (Book/Play1)"

"Non-English quotation."

"Must we always bedeck ourselves in prettiness to be thought pleasing? It would appear so. A woman must look a certain way to be worthy of a man’s attentions. It is expected."

"Many in Batchcombe have suffered greatly, William. They look for someone to blame. It was my mother who made me see that.” She hesitated, then added, “People fear what they cannot explain."

"Slowly Tegan looked up and I saw wonderment on her face. It was of the variety only ever found in those young enough to yet have minds as open as the oceans and hearts longing to have proof of magic."

"After all, are we not measured by the way in which we treat the most vulnerable members of our society?"

"For whatever time we might have, my love. For whatever time we might have."

"She needs the hand of friendship extended. Are we not all of us, at some time or another, dependent on the kindness of others? Would we not wish someone to act selflessly for our sake?"

"fear it is written somewhere in the terms of my parental contract: Fret frequently about well-being of offspring."

"It’s a brilliant example of a writer in total control of her material, apparently effortlessly inhabiting the minds of her characters and giving them wonderfully individual voices."

"My mind is like the willow; it flexes and springs. My heart is a knot of oak. Let them try to wound me."

"We are each mistresses of our own happiness. We ought not to look to others to supply it."

"what can be imagined can be brought into being."

"There is none so quick to dismiss what they don’t understand as those who are afraid of it. And maybe with reason."

"For, what is home? Surely more than a set of rooms, a roof, an address? Home suggests belonging. Suggests warmth, safety, companionship. Love."

"Reputation is for those who can afford it."

"Better foolish and honest than clever and false."

"If you are not able to travel, he told me, the next best thing is to read. Read all you can, girl. And store up that knowledge, for you never know when you will need it."