The lessons taught in great books are misleading. The commerce in life is rarely so simple and never so just.
Anita BrooknerOne loses the capacity to grieve as a child grieves, or to rage as a child rages: hotly, despairingly, with tears of passion. One grows up, one becomes civilized, one learns one's manners, and consequently can no longer manage these two functions - sorrow and anger - adequately.
Anita BrooknerWhat is interesting about self-analysis is that it leads nowhere - it is an art form in itself.
Anita BrooknerExistentialism is about being a saint without God; being your own hero, without all the sanction and support of religion or society.
Anita Brookner