Quotes from Penelope Fitzgerald

Surely if one doesn't find sex tiresome in life, it won't be tiresome in fiction,' said the Junior Dean. 'I do find it tiresome in life,' Dr Matthews replied. 'Or rather, I find other people's concern with it tiresome. One is told about it and told and told!

Hannah wanted to put the next day's work on the blackboard. This would mean that she needn't turn her back on the class first thing, which is as unwise in junior teaching as in lion-taming.

I have remained true to my deepest convictions. I mean to the courage of those who are born to be defeated, the weaknesses of the strong, and the tragedy of misunderstandings and missed opportunities, which I have done my best to treat as comedy – for otherwise how can we manage to bear it?

only elevenpence in the shilling.

He ordered a cup of tea and two biscuits for five pence and thought of nothing.—Oh, but that's impossible.—It's not possible to think of nothing. Certainly it was unprofessional of Fred, who was paid by the university to use his mind, and unwise of him as a lover, but there it was, he was occupied with bitter sensations, giving way to stupefaction, then to emptiness.

Un buen libro es la preciosa savia del alma de un maestro, embalsamada y atesorada intencionadamente para una vida más allá de la vida y, como tal, no hay duda de que debe ser una artículo de primera necesidad

But time giving to wishing for what can't be is not only spent, but wasted, and for all that we waste we shall be accountable.

She was in love, as she quite saw, with a middle - aged man who said the same thing to all the girls, who had been a prince for an evening which he'd most likely forgotten already, who had given her a ring with a redcurrant in it and who cared, to the exclusion of all else, for his work.

Quizá su batalla para establecerse en Old House había terminado, o quizá se equivocaba al pensar que había encontrado su lugar o que podría encontrarlo alguna vez.

La docilidad no es lo mismo que la amabilidad. S personalidad líquida iba tanteando el terreno, y se introducía sigilosamente por los puntos más vulnerables de los demás hasta encontrar un lugar apropiado en el que instalarse y sacar de él el máximo provecho.

Una vez había visto volar por encima del estuario a una garza que intentaba, mientras estaba en el aire, tragarse una anguila que acababa de pescar. La anguila, a su vez, luchaba por escapar del gaznate de la garza, y se le veía un cuarto, la mitad o, en ocasiones, tres cuartos del cuerpo colgando. La indecisión que expresaban ambas criaturas era lastimosa. Se habían propuesto demasiado.

Open the doors, the Russians say, here comes trouble. On

What do I think about the story? he asked himself. I don't even know if we've got the right version. But no, that's not the point. The right version would presumably be true, and a legend doesn't have to be true, it has other things to do.

Above all, though, we don't want a weakly habit of constant complaint. As a rough guide, remember that while the average man is ill for four days a year, a grown woman must expect to spend one fourth of her life in actual pain. Daisy felt a rush of admiration. So far she herself had done nothing like her fair share.

think, indeed, that women have a better grasp on the whole business of life than we men have. We are morally better than they are, but they can reach perfection, we can't. And that is in spite of the fact that they particularise, we generalise.

He was not trained in conservation - he was, after all, no more than an archaeologist - a digger!

I'm sure you didn't. You're either a child or a woman, and neither of them have any idea how to relax.' 'You watch it,' said Christine.

Salvatore threw up his hands. What's to become of us? We can't go on like this. Yes, we can go on like this, said Cesare. We can go on exactly like this for the rest of our lives.

Courage and endurance are useless if they are never tested

They were delightful evenings, for there was no need to listen closely, and in front of the slumberous rows the coloured slides followed each other in no sort of order, disobedient to the Vicar's voice.

Luck has its rules, if you can understand them, and then it is scarcely luck.

The professor urged upon Fred that to base one's calculations on unobservables - such as God, such as the soul, such as the atom, such as the elementary particle - was nothing more than a comforting weakness. 'I don't deny that all human beings need comfort. But scientists should not indulge themselves on quite this scale.

Gentleness is not kindness. His fluid personality tested and stole into the weak places of others until it found it could settle down to its own advantage.

The Freifrau, meanwhile, struggled with the demon of timidity.