while it is certainly the biographer's business to describe the foibles, passions and idiosyncrasies which make his subject a person, his work will be very meagre if these individual traits are not also seen as part of a universal drama - for each man's life is also the story of Everyman.
Iris Origowhile it is certainly the biographer's business to describe the foibles, passions and idiosyncrasies which make his subject a person, his work will be very meagre if these individual traits are not also seen as part of a universal drama - for each man's life is also the story of Everyman.
Iris OrigoWe are being governed by the dregs of the nation - and their brutality is so capricious that no one can feel certain that he will be safe tomorrow.
Iris OrigoThe biographer's real business - if it is not too arrogant to say so - is simply this: to bring the dead to life.
Iris OrigoI write because, exacting as it may be to do so, it is still more difficult to refrain, and because - however conscious of one's limitations one may be - there is always at the back of one's mind an irrational hope that this next book will be different: it will be the rounded achievement, the complete fulfilment. It never has been: yet I am still writing.
Iris Origo