“I experienced a form of grief so intense and pure I thought it would kill me.” — William Boyd Death Copy Share Image
It's true: lives do drift apart for no obvious reason. We're all busy people,we can't spend our time simply trying to stay… — William Boyd Copy Share Image
“When I think of my youth, he went in, what we took for granted, what we assumed was for ever certain, for… — William Boyd Youth Copy Share Image
“You think it begins to diminish with time, the pain, then it comes back and hits you with a rawness and freshness… — William Boyd Copy Share Image
I know many older writers who were very successful and whose books are now out of print, so you have to go… — William Boyd Book Copy Share Image
“A vague worry has started alongside my self-satisfaction: I have established, with amazing rapidity, a reputation for maniacal, self-destructive courage.” — William Boyd Courage Copy Share Image
“Every life is both ordinary and extraordinary - it is the respective proportion of those two categories that make that life appear… — William Boyd Copy Share Image
There is a disconnect between the film Bond and the literary Bond which is their contemporaneity. I don't suffer from that. — William Boyd Copy Share Image
I tend to admire dead people more than the living. All too often, human reality diminishes the glowing reputation. — William Boyd Copy Share Image
“LOSER! You English lose...I suppose he thought it was the most grievous insult he could hurl. But such a curse doesn't really… — William Boyd English Copy Share Image
“Those were the years when I was truly happy. Knowing that is both a blessing and a curse. It's good to acknowledge… — William Boyd Happiness Copy Share Image
“From time to time Eva would venture on deck to gaze at the grey sky,the grey turbulent water and the grey ships… — William Boyd Time Copy Share Image
“You know that feeling, when you can almost see the two or several directions your life might take ahead of you, a… — William Boyd Life Copy Share Image
Writing a film - more precisely, adapting a book into a film - is basically a relentless series of compromises. The skill,… — William Boyd Copy Share Image
Is that a good definition of marking the ageing watershed? That moment when you realize - quite rationally, quite unemotionally - that… — William Boyd Ageing Copy Share Image
As a novelist, where do you go to tap into memories, and impressions, and sensations? It's usually, in my experience, your early… — William Boyd Copy Share Image
“It was like picking a scab off a sore; he actually wanted scar tissue - it would be quite wrong to try… — William Boyd Copy Share Image
“I was convinced I had overdrawn my balance of good fortune; that whatever haphazard benevolence the impassive universe might hold towards me… — william boyd Balance Copy Share Image
“That's ally our life amounts to in the end: the aggregate of all the good luck and the bad luck you experience.… — William Boyd Bad luck Copy Share Image
“We're not ready for it - for people our age to die. We think we're safe for a while, but it's a… — William Boyd Dreams Copy Share Image
“Love is not a feeling. It does not belong to that category of bodily experience which would include, for instance, pain.” — William Boyd Copy Share Image
I have always thought if you are going to make a film, it's much better to have an original script that will… — William Boyd Copy Share Image
“any man over forty who deliberately combs his hair forward in a child’s fringe has something suspect about him,” — William Boyd Children Copy Share Image
“True learning only occurs when you love the subject you are studying and then the acquiring of knowledge is effortless because it… — William Boyd Education Copy Share Image
“I love to use these phrases - 'with the greatest respect', 'in all modest', 'I humbly submit' - which in fact always… — William Boyd Humble Copy Share Image
“I know part of my sorrow is just disguised self-pity, I needed that exchange and I worry how I'll cope without it… — William Boyd Grief Copy Share Image
“The idea of a priori moral judgements ('It is morally wrong to inflict gratuitous pain') is completely acceptable to the vast majority… — William Boyd Character Copy Share Image
It's strange; when I was younger and people would ask, 'Where are you from?', I'd say, 'West Africa', which was odd because… — William Boyd Africa Copy Share Image
“I wasn't feeling grief: that hellish chest-crammed agony you feel - but some portion of my brain activated by the memory decided… — William Boyd Death Copy Share Image
“Is it possible to live reasonably without lying? Do lies form the natural foundation of all human relationships, the thread that stitches… — William Boyd Human relationship Copy Share Image
“David Gascoyne once told me that the only point of keeping a journal was to concentrate of the personal, the diurnal minutiae,… — William Boyd Keeping a journal Copy Share Image
I have teken refuge in the doctrine that advises one not to seek tranquility in certainty but in permanently suspended judgement. — William Boyd Copy Share Image
“Here at its extremities the terrified transients gathered, gazing out at the vast refulgent ocean for some sign of security.” — William Boyd Copy Share Image
Film is a medium of clear lines and broad strikes - which can be fantastic - but compared to the subtleties and… — William Boyd Books Copy Share Image
“Are there aspects of our lives - things we do, feel and think - that we daren't confess, even to ourselves, even… — William Boyd Copy Share Image
“It’s funny how, sometimes, one can be so convinced, so utterly certain, about something as entirely fickle as strong emotion” — William Boyd Copy Share Image
In some ways, you could argue, television is doing far more interesting work than the movies. It's more fulfilling. — William Boyd Copy Share Image
“So much for my great vendetta, so much for the tireless hunt for my betrayer. Isn't this how life turns out, more… — William Boyd Life Copy Share Image
It's amazing how sudden the effect is - it must be the result of a deep atavistic mating urge buried inside us.… — William Boyd Body Copy Share Image
“They are all about romance, about life's excitement and adventure and it's essential sadness and transience. They savour everything both fine and… — William Boyd Adventure Copy Share Image
