Miscellaneous Quotations I-J
"[...] I understood that comedy was
just another form of condolence"
John Irving, Trying to save Piggy Sneed.
"Being a writer is a strenuous marriage between
careful observation and just as carefully imagining the truths you haven´t
had the opportunity to see".
John Irving, Trying to save Piggy Sneed.
"'Every one of us has some incident in our lives that we're ashamed
and sorry about. You've recently learned something about yourself, about
what you're capable of doing, which has shaken your confidence. Now you
have to live with that knowledge. We can only begin to understand and
forgive other people when we have learned to understand and forgive ourselves.'"
P.D. James, Shroud for a Nightingale, in: A Dalgliesh Trilogy (London
1991, p.70).
"'Has it ever occurred to you that a woman, when
she is powerful, is more powerful than a man?'"
P.D. James, A Certain Justice (London 1998, p.29).
"You couldn't exorcize the past either by returning to it or by running
away. You couldn't resolve to put it out of your mind and memory because
it was part of mind and memory. You couldn't reject it because it had
made you what you were."
P.D. James, A Certain Justice (London 1998, p.263.
"'You should avoid living too much in the real
world, young man. It isn't conducive to happiness.'"
P.D. James, A Certain Justice (London 1998, p.360).
"'Now she and her mother became mildly addicted
to the risible awfulness of a family drama series in which the characters
apparently physically and mentally unscathed by the traumas of the last
episode, were resurrected weekly, freshly coiffured, their wounds healed
and scarless, for yet another emotional and physical blood-bath. Such
a convenient ability to live for the moment with its subliminal message
that the past could literally be put behind one had much to recommend
it."
P.D. James, Innocent Blood (London 2000, p.203).
"It always does seem to me that I am doing more work
than I should do. It is not that I object to the work, mind you; I like
work; it fascinates me. I can sit and look at it for hours. I love to keep
it by me; the idea of getting rid of it nearly breaks my heart."
Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat (London 1957, pp.144/145).
"How good one feels when one is full - how satisfied
with ourselves and with the world! People who have tried it, tell me that
a clear conscience makes you very happy and contented; but a full stomach
does the business quite as well, and is cheaper, and more easily obtained.
One feels so forgiving and generous after a substantial and well-digested
meal - so noble-minded, so kindly-hearted."
Jerome K. Jerome, Three Men in a Boat (London 1957, pp.92).