Beryl Bainbridge Quotes

The older one becomes the quicker the present fades into sepia and the past looms up in glorious technicolour

Being constantly with children was like wearing a pair of shoes that were expensive and too small. She couldn't bear to throw them out, but they gave her blisters.

Once the grammar has been learned, writing is simply talking on paper and in time learning what not to say.

Everything else you grow out of, but you never recover from childhood.

It is the generation of the unemphatic. Steal, kill, lie, fornicate, but beware of indulging with conviction.

The prize I value most was given to me 60 years ago. I was named the girl with the cleanest fingernails.

I am of the firm belief that everybody could write books and I never understand why they don't. After all, everybody speaks. Once the grammar has been learnt it is simply talking on paper and in time learning what not to say.

What we remember is probably fiction anyway.

Women are programmed to love completely, and men are programmed to spread it around. We are fools to think it's any different.

There is nothing more guaranteed to reduce a man to the essentials than to live beneath the sky.

It seems to me that a mutually beneficial relationship between a man and woman requires the man to be dominant. A sensible woman will allow the man to think he is the most important partner.

Moonlight lined the windowsills like a fall of snow.

Emotions weren't like washing. There was no call to peg them out for all the world to view.

I've never been drawn to the feminist movement. I was brought up to believe that men had little to do with the home or children - except to bring in the money.

no one had experiences any more, only traumas.

When passion is mutual, there is always the danger of the fire burning to ashes.

The vital accessories to my work are my reference books, such as the complete Shakespeare and a prayer book, and a large refuse bin.

nothing is so sad as the injustices of old age.

There are many things in this life capable of throwing people off course - the death of someone close, the loss of income or health, the realisation that cherished hopes cannot always be fulfilled

I've never been put down by a man, unless I deserved it, and have never felt inferior.

Well, I woke up one morning around Christmas, went as far as the shops, and when I got to the corner I felt this violent pain in me left leg. I mentioned it to my daughter and she took me instantly to the hospital. It turned out it was vasculitis. In other words, you can have your leg off.

The sun burnt on, drugging everything with warmth.