---
title: "2 Houses Quotes By Penelope Lively"
description: "2 Houses quotes by Penelope Lively. Plus more from Penelope Lively and more Houses sayings from other authors."
image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/227/penelope-lively-3959_contrasts_other-people-s-houses-always-intrigued-h_1461607.jpg"
---

> [“Other people's houses always intrigued her by the contrast they offered to Greystones; she would see suddenly -- with detached interest and quite without envy or criticism -- the extent to which other people's preoccupations differed from her own.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penelope-lively/other-people-s-houses-always-intrigued-her-by-the-contrast-they/)

[Penelope Lively](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penelope-lively/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/227/penelope-lively-3959_contrasts_other-people-s-houses-always-intrigued-h_1461607.jpg)

> [“The house squatted around them, vast, empty, unnecessary and indestructible. You had to be a fat busy Victorian family to expand enough to fill up basements and passages and conservatives and attics. You had to have an army of bootboys…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penelope-lively/the-house-squatted-around-them-vast-empty-unnecessary-and/)

[Penelope Lively](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penelope-lively/)

[Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/adc/penelope-lively-3959_daily-business_the-house-squatted-around-them-vast-empt_2146057.jpg)

## Other authors on Houses

## More by Penelope Lively

> [“I know quite well why I became a historian… It was because dissension was frowned upon when I was a child: 'Don't argue, Claudia,'…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penelope-lively/i-know-quite-well-why-i-became-a-historian-it-was-because-dissension/)

[Penelope Lively](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penelope-lively/)

> [“The question is, shall it or shall it not be linear history. I've always thought a kaleidoscopic view might be an interesting heresey. Shake…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penelope-lively/the-question-is-shall-it-or-shall-it-not-be-linear-history-i-ve/)

[Penelope Lively](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penelope-lively/)

> [There's a preoccupation with memory and the operation of memory and a rather rapacious interest in history.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penelope-lively/there-s-a-preoccupation-with-memory-and-the-operation-of-memory-and-a/)

[Penelope Lively](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penelope-lively/)

> [“He felt marvellously conscious of the moment, of here and now, of this day.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penelope-lively/he-felt-marvellously-conscious-of-the-moment-of-here-and-now-of-this/)

[Penelope Lively](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penelope-lively/)

> [People die, but money never does.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penelope-lively/people-die-but-money-never-does/)

[Penelope Lively](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penelope-lively/)

> [“But her thoughts are often of the past. That evanescent, pervasive, slippery internal landscape known to no one else, that vast accretion of data…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penelope-lively/but-her-thoughts-are-often-of-the-past-that-evanescent-pervasive/)

[Penelope Lively](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penelope-lively/)

> [Unless I am a part of everything I am nothing.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penelope-lively/unless-i-am-a-part-of-everything-i-am-nothing/)

[Penelope Lively](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penelope-lively/)

> [Getting to know someone else involves curiosity about where they have come from, who they are.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penelope-lively/getting-to-know-someone-else-involves-curiosity-about-where-they-have/)

[Penelope Lively](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penelope-lively/)

> [I'm intrigued by the way in which physical appearance can often direct a person's life; things happen differently for a beautiful woman than for…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penelope-lively/i-m-intrigued-by-the-way-in-which-physical-appearance-can-often/)

[Penelope Lively](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penelope-lively/)

> [Since then, I have just read and read - but, that said, I suppose there is a raft of writers to whom I return…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penelope-lively/since-then-i-have-just-read-and-read-but-that-said-i-suppose-there-is/)

[Penelope Lively](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penelope-lively/)

> [“I have a print - you can buy them at the Victoria and Albert Museum - of a photograph of the village street of…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penelope-lively/i-have-a-print-you-can-buy-them-at-the-victoria-and-albert-museum-of/)

[Penelope Lively](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penelope-lively/)

> [Every novel generates its own climate, when you get going.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penelope-lively/every-novel-generates-its-own-climate-when-you-get-going/)

[Penelope Lively](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penelope-lively/)

> [“The power of language. Preserving the ephemeral; giving form to dreams, permanence to sparks of sunlight.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penelope-lively/the-power-of-language-preserving-the-ephemeral-giving-form-to-dreams/)

[Penelope Lively](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penelope-lively/)

> [We all need a past - that's where our sense of identity comes from.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penelope-lively/we-all-need-a-past-that-s-where-our-sense-of-identity-comes-from/)

[Penelope Lively](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penelope-lively/)

> [Conventional forms of narrative allow for different points of view, but for this book I wanted a structure whereby each of the main characters…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/penelope-lively/conventional-forms-of-narrative-allow-for-different-points-of-view/)

[Penelope Lively](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/penelope-lively/)

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