Anthony Burgess Quotes & Sayings (Page 2)

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

“The unconscious mind has a habit of asserting itself in the afternoon.”

“One of the delights known to age, and beyond the grasp of youth, is that of Not Going.”

“The possession of a book becomes a substitute for reading it.”

“The downtrodden are the great creators of slang.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

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

“To write is to become disinterested. There is a certain renunciation in art.”