All A. S. Byatt Quotes
- On buses and trains, I always think about the inexhaustible variety of human genes. We see types, and occasionally twins, but never doubles. All faces… Actor
- I grew up with that completely fictive idea of motherhood, where the mother never strayed from the kitchen. All the women in my books are… Afraid
- Pain hardens, and great pain hardens greatly, whatever the comforters say, and suffering does not ennoble, though it may occasionally lend a certain rigid dignity… Certain
- I think the names of colors are at the edge, between where language fails and where it's at its most powerful. Color
- She was a logical child, as far as children go. She did not understand how such a nice, kind, good God as the one they… Behalf
- I think the virtue I prize above all others is curiosity. All
- Narration is as much a part of human nature as breath and the circulation of the blood. Blood
- Once you get older, people stop listening to what you say. It's very agreeable once you get used to it. Age
- I like feeling my way into different minds and experiences. It comes naturally and always has. Comes Naturally
- I think there are a lot more important things than art in the world. But not to me. Art
- I'm more interested in books than people, and I always expect everybody else to be, but they're not. Always Expect
- It's a terrible poison, writing. Inspirational
- It's because I'm a feminist that I can't stand women limiting other women's imaginations. It really makes me angry. Angry
- Never stop paying attention to things. Never make your mind up finally. Do not hold beliefs. Attention
- One of the reasons I've gotten so attached to talking to scientists is that... they know there is a reality. Attached
- The more research you do, the more at ease you are in the world you're writing about. It doesn't encumber you, it makes you free. Ease
- There are many ways of writing badly about painting... There is an 'appreciative' language of threadbare, not inaccurate, but overexposed and irritating words... the language… Allegories
- Autobiographies tell more lies than all but the most self-indulgent fiction . All
- Only write to me, write to me, I love to see the hop and skip and sudden starts of your ink. Hop
- Things are not what they seem. Funny
- There are things that happen and leave no discernible trace, are not spoken or written of, though it would be very wrong to say that… All
- Everything is surprising, rightly seen. Funny
- The individual appears for an instant, joins the community of thought, modifies it and dies; but the species, that dies not, reaps the fruit of… Appears
- Art does not exist for politics, or for instruction- it exists primarily for pleasure, or it is nothing. Art
- What literature can and should do is change the people who teach the people who don't read the books. Book