“..."the waiting-room atmosphere in which death was the delayed train...” — Edward St. Aubyn Death Copy Share Image
“Is there ever anything to get unduly worried about,' Peter couldn't help asking, 'when there are so many things to worry about… — Edward St. Aubyn Concern Copy Share Image
“But that, after all, was the point of romantic folly. If it hadn’t all gone horribly wrong, it wouldn’t have been the… — Edward St. Aubyn Love Copy Share Image
“If anything should take place behind closed doors, it was cruelty and betrayal.” — Edward St. Aubyn Behind closed doors Copy Share Image
“People never remember happiness with the care that they lavish on preserving every detail of their suffering.” — Edward St. Aubyn Happiness Copy Share Image
“The Park's nice,' his father conceded, 'but the rest of the country is just people in huge cars wondering what to eat… — Edward St. Aubyn Americans Copy Share Image
“After less than a year together they now slept in separate rooms because Victor's snoring, and nothing else about him, kept her… — Edward St. Aubyn Awake at night Copy Share Image
“He was just one of those Englishmen who was always saying silly things to sound less pompous, and pompous things to sound… — Edward St. Aubyn Englishmen Copy Share Image
“That was the wonderful thing about historical novels, one met so many famous people. It was like reading a very old copy… — Edward St. Aubyn Books Copy Share Image
“An editor sleeping with his writer was not as bad as a psychoanalyst sleeping with his patient, or even a professor sleeping… — Edward St. Aubyn Editor Copy Share Image
“In the Dodge City of romantic love, crowded with betrayal, abandonment and rejection, it was better to fire first than to take… — Edward St. Aubyn Love Copy Share Image
“Try as one might to live on the edge, thought Patrick, getting into the other lift, there was no point in competing… — Edward St. Aubyn Copy Share Image
“The Queen was saying only the other day that London property prices are so high that she doesn’t know how she’d cope… — Edward St. Aubyn Buckingham palace Copy Share Image
“Old enough to remember the arrival of 'Have a nice day', Patrick could only look with alarm on the hyperinflation of 'Have… — Edward St. Aubyn America Copy Share Image
“The measure of a work of art is how much art it has in it, not how much ‘relevance’. Relevant to whom?… — Edward St. Aubyn Art Copy Share Image
“An image flashed across her mind of two rams flinging their heads against each other on a rocky mountainside. What did the… — Edward St. Aubyn Discussing Copy Share Image
“The leafless trees, with their black branches stretched hysterically in every direction, looked to him like illustrations of a central nervous system… — Edward St. Aubyn Analogy Copy Share Image
“He had only just made the Elysian deadline; hanging onto the typescript until the last moment in case there was something still… — Edward St. Aubyn Art Copy Share Image
“If you were madly in love, you’d want me to win,’ said Katherine. “‘I’m not sure that’s true,’ said Sam. ‘I think… — Edward St. Aubyn Egoism Copy Share Image
“The mess that's emerging...at least reflects the truth of my experience, the fact that every contemplation is interrupted, and that every interruption… — Edward St. Aubyn Contemplation Copy Share Image
“But then neither revenge nor forgiveness change what happened. They’re sideshows, of which forgiveness is the less attractive because it represents a… — Edward St. Aubyn Change Copy Share Image
“Simplification was dangerous and would later take its revenge. Only when he could hold in balance his hatred and his stunted love,… — Edward St. Aubyn Love Copy Share Image
“Thanks for putting that in terms I can easily grasp,’ said Malcolm, without showing the patronizing bitch the slightest sign of irony.” — Edward St. Aubyn Patronizing Copy Share Image
“The shock of standing again under the wide pale sky, completely exposed. This must be what the oyster feels when the lemon… — Edward St. Aubyn Lemon juice Copy Share Image
“There could be no real dialogue between those who still thought that time was on their side and those who realized that… — Edward St. Aubyn Children Copy Share Image
“Nobody ever died of a feeling, he would say to himself, not believing a word of it, as he sweated his way… — Edward St. Aubyn Death Copy Share Image
“Could one have a time-release epiphany, an epiphany without realizing it had happened? Or were they always trumpeted by angels and preceded… — Edward St. Aubyn Epiphany Copy Share Image
“Why was he in this state? Or perhaps the question was why had he not always been in this state? Why had… — Edward St. Aubyn Distress Copy Share Image
“In England, art was much less likely to be mentioned in polite society than sexual perversions or methods of torture.” — Edward St. Aubyn Art Copy Share Image
“At the beginning, there had been talk of using some of her money to start a home for alcoholics. In a sense… — Edward St. Aubyn Alcoholics Copy Share Image
“We are entering the Dark Ages, my friend, but this time there will be lots of neon, and screen savers, and street… — Edward St. Aubyn Dark ages Copy Share Image
“Was this the triumph of self-knowledge: to suffer more lucidly?” — Edward St. Aubyn Clarity Copy Share Image
“How could he think his way out of the problem when the problem was the way he thought...” — Edward St. Aubyn Problem solving Copy Share Image
“Personally I think that competition should be encouraged in war and sport and business, but that it makes no sense in the… — Edward St. Aubyn Art Copy Share Image
“In my rather brief medical practice,' said David modestly, 'I found that people spend their whole lives imagining they are about to… — Edward St. Aubyn Death Copy Share Image
“Was he, after all, really a bad man doing a brilliant impersonation of an idiot? It was hard to tell. The connections… — Edward St. Aubyn Bad man Copy Share Image
“He had become so caught up in building sentences that he had almost forgotten the barbaric days when thinking was like a… — Edward St. Aubyn Mind Copy Share Image
“It was never quite clear to Eleanor why the English thought it was so distinguished to have done nothing for a long… — Edward St. Aubyn Long time Copy Share Image
“He found her pretty in a bewildered, washed-out way, but it was her restlessness that aroused him, the quiet exasperation of a… — Edward St. Aubyn Arousal Copy Share Image
