“I can’t bear the smell of cigars, can you?” said Lady Partridge. “Lionel hates it too,” murmured Rachel. As did Nick, to whom the dry lavatorial stench of cigars signified the inexplicable confidence of other men’s tastes and habits, and… — Alan Hollinghurst Copy Share Image
To apologize for what you most wanted to do, to concede that it was obnoxious, boring, 'vulgar and unsafe' --- that was the worst… — Alan Hollinghurst Copy Share Image
“And something else came back, from that later first morning at Kensington Park Gardens: a sense that the house was not only an enhancement… — Alan Hollinghurst Copy Share Image
“Andrew Davies has said he prefers his authors dead, and I can see there is only a limited usefulness in a live one when… — Alan Hollinghurst Copy Share Image
“...but he felt the relief of being alone as well...the forgotten solitude which measures and verifies the strength of an affair, and which, being… — Alan Hollinghurst Copy Share Image
...all his longings came out as a kind of disdain for what he longed for. — Alan Hollinghurst Copy Share Image
“She felt that at some point she must finally and formally talk to Louisa about Hubert, and ask her to acknowledge that the worst… — Alan Hollinghurst Copy Share Image
“After that they browsed for a minute or two in a semi-detached fashion. Nick found a set of Trollope which had a relatively modest… — Alan Hollinghurst Copy Share Image
Now that I had actually made love, more astonishingly now that I had been made love to, the fantasies were subtly undermined. — Alan Hollinghurst Copy Share Image
“The pursuit of love seemed to need the cultivation of indifference.” — Alan Hollinghurst Copy Share Image
What the problem was was this colossal redundancy, the squandering of brilliant technique on cheap material, ... — Alan Hollinghurst Copy Share Image
“Delight is délice, délit is a misdemeanour' 'Well, it's bloody close...' 'Well, they often are....” — Alan Hollinghurst Copy Share Image
