When I first began to write fiction, I didn't think I was a comic writer; I thought I was a serious writer. I was surprised when the first novel I wrote was regarded as a funny novel. — Anthony Burgess Copy Share Image
If you write fiction you are, in a sense, corrupted. There's a tremendous corruptibility for the fiction writer because you're dealing mainly with sex and violence. These remain the basic themes, they're the basic themes of Shakespeare whether you like… — Anthony Burgess Copy Share Image
If you expect the worst from a person you can never be disappointed. — Anthony Burgess Copy Share Image
A novelist should not be too intelligent either, although... he may be permitted to be an intellectual. — Anthony Burgess Copy Share Image
“A man who serves language, however imperfectly, should always serve truth.” — Anthony Burgess Copy Share Image
All human life is here, but the Holy Ghost seems to be somewhere else. — Anthony Burgess Copy Share Image
Rome's just a city like anywhere else. A vastly overrated city, I'd say. It trades on belief just as Stratford trades on Shakespeare. — Anthony Burgess Copy Share Image
The important thing is moral choice. Evil has to exist along with good, in order that moral choice may operate. Life is sustained by… — Anthony Burgess Copy Share Image
Without class differences, England would cease to be the living theatre it is. — Anthony Burgess Copy Share Image
The ideal reader of my novels is a lapsed Catholic and failed musician, short-sighted, colour-blind, auditorily biased, who has read the books that I… — Anthony Burgess Copy Share Image
... A CLOCKWORK ORANGE- and I said: 'That's a fair gloopy title. Who ever heard of a clockwork orange?' Then I read a malenky… — Anthony Burgess Copy Share Image
A work of fiction should be, for its author, a journey into the unknown, and the prose should convey the difficulties of the journey. — Anthony Burgess Copy Share Image
“They don't go into what is the cause of goodness, so why of the other shop? If lewdies are good that's because they like… — Anthony Burgess Copy Share Image
“By definition, a human being is endowed with free will. He can use this to choose between good and evil. If he can only… — Anthony Burgess Copy Share Image
