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Quotes by British Authors

"At the art college in Edinburgh someone arranged for some London groups to come up and play. I was in a supporting band, with Bernie Green I think. Derek Bailey was one of the visiting musicians. He seemed to like my playing and asked me to come down to London."

"In politics the choice is constantly between two evils."

"The biggest critics of my books are people who never read them."

"A virtue to be serviceable must, like gold, be alloyed with some commoner, but more durable alloy."

"The colors I use may clash or vibrate against one another but this is done intentionally."

"I really fall in love with my characters, even the bad ones. I love getting together with them. They tell me what to do; they take me on a wild and wonderful trip."


"It is a dangerous thing to have instant access to your emotions."


"I entirely agree with you about the obscurity of Mrs Browning's line about the stars. It is far-fetched. She wanted to express something which she found beyond expression."

"Why should we change that which makes us unique?"

"Boxing is the toughest and loneliest sport in the world."

"You must learn to control your dreams or your dreams will forever control you."

"Patience's design flaw became obvious for the first time in my life: the outcome is decided not during the course of play but when the cards are shuffled, before the game even begins. How pointless is that?"

"Listeners will wonder what an Englishman is doing on the German radio tonight. You can imagine that before taking this step I hoped that someone better qualified than me would come forward."

"When a homemaking aunt scolds a niece for following her evangelistic passion instead of domestic pursuits, her reply is interesting. First, she clarifies that God's individual call on her doesn't condemn those in more conventional roles. Then, she says she can no more ignore the cry of the lost than her aunt can the cry of her child."

"It should now be clear why the method of Philosophy is so different from that of the natural sciences. Experiments are not made, because they would be utterly useless."

"We don't live as God intended us to, but we live as the Devil wants us to."

"Your choices can only be limited by your mind."

"To his eyes all seemed beautiful, but to me a tinge of melancholy lay upon the countryside, which bore so clearly the mark of the waning year, Yellow leaves carpeted the lanes and fluttered down upon us as we passed, The rattle of our wheels died away as we drove through drifts of rotting vegetation--sad gifts, as it seemed to me, for Nature to throw before the carriage of the returning heir of the Baskervilles."

"Art is the refreshing source of existence."


"I was slightly brain damaged at birth, and I want people like me to see that they shouldn't let a disability get in the way. I want to raise awareness - I want to turn my disability into ability."

"Our present time is indeed a criticizing and critical time, hovering between the wish, and the inability to believe. Our complaints are like arrows shot up into the air at no target: and with no purpose they only fall back upon our own heads and destroy ourselves."

"Well the least favourite question is the one that one's asked particularly about in Japan is what's the difference between theatre and cinema and I think, well, that's about eighty bucks."

"Without the will or desire to achieve one is like flotsam on the oceans of time."

"I seldom play in a trio, but acoustic music is likely to be lighter, quicker, and quieter."

"That which endures forever, it is released from nebulous name-giving."

"But she had learnt, in those solemn hours of thought, that she herself must one day answer for her own life, and what she had done with it; and she tried to settle that most difficult problem, how much was to be utterly merged in obedience to authority, and how much might be set apart for freedom in working."

"Poor fellow! I think he is in love with you.'I am not aware of it. And to me it is one of the most odious things in a girl's life, that there must always be some supposition of falling in love coming between her and any man who is kind to her... I have no ground for the nonsensical vanity of fancying everybody who comes near me is in love with me."

"I only do solo albums when songs are screaming at me to be let out of my mind."

"Every four weeks I go up a bra size... it's worth being pregnant just for the breasts."


"The more my work improves or broadens or widens, the more surely I tame myself."

"But women living in fear of aging, and pulling painful and expensive tricks to hide it from the world, does not say something amazing about us as humans."


"I'm always writing or playing because that is my life."

"Be still! Or life will pass you by."

"To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often."

"Playing safe, hiding among the masses, will rarely get you noticed."

"Faith - you can do very little with it, but you can do nothing without it."
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