Quotes by Anthony Burgess

Anthony Burgess

British writer, criticus

Alive from: 1917-1993

Category: Media | Writers (Contemporary)

Quotes 1 till 15 of 23.

• Anthony Burgess

  

  - +

   0
  A novelist should not be too intelligent either, although... he may be permitted to be an intellectual.

• Anthony Burgess

  

  - +

   0
  Americans will listen, but they do not care to read. War and Peace must wait for the leisure of retirement, which never really comes: meanwhile it helps to furnish the living room.

• Anthony Burgess

  

  - +

   0
  Art is dangerous. It is one of the attractions: when it ceases to be dangerous you don't want it.

• Anthony Burgess

  

  - +

   0
  Bath twice a day to be really clean, once a day to be passably clean, once a week to avoid being a public menace.

• Anthony Burgess

  

  - +

   0
  Books in a large university library system: 2,000,000. Books in an average large city library: 10,000. Average number of books in a chain bookstore: 30,000. Books in an average neighborhood branch library: 20,000.

• Anthony Burgess

  

  - +

   0
  Every dogma has its day.

• Anthony Burgess

  

  - +

   0
  He said it was artificial respiration, but now I find I am to have his child.

• Anthony Burgess

  

  - +

   0
  I didn't think; I experimented.

• Anthony Burgess

  

  - +

   0
  If you believe in an unseen Christ, you will believe in the unseen Christlike potential of others.

• Anthony Burgess

  

  - +

   0
  If you write fiction you are, in a sense, corrupted. There's a tremendous corruptibility for the fiction writer because you're dealing mainly with sex and violence. These remain the basic themes, they're the basic themes of Shakespeare whether you like it or not.

• Anthony Burgess

  

  - +

   0
  It's always good to remember where you come from and celebrate it. To remember where you come from is part of where you're going.

• Anthony Burgess

  

  - +

   0
  Laugh and the world laughs with you. Snore and you sleep alone.

• Anthony Burgess

  

  - +

   0
  Life is a wretched gray Saturday, but it has to be lived through.

• Anthony Burgess

  

  - +

   0
  The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent, experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it, if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

• Anthony Burgess

  

  - +

   0
  The downtrodden, who are the great creators of slang.