I donโt believe one reads to escape reality. A person reads to confirm a reality he knows is there, but which he has not experienced.
Lawrence DurrellI am quite alone. I am neither happy nor unhappy; I lie suspended like a hair or a feather in the cloudy mixtures of memory.
Lawrence DurrellIt takes a lot of energy and a lot of neurosis to write a novel. If you were really sensible, you'd do something else.
Lawrence DurrellThe heaviest impact of the work of art is in the guts. Art does not reason. It manhandles you and changes you.
Lawrence DurrellThe loved object is simply one that has shared an experience at the same moment of time, narcissistically; and the desire to be near the beloved object is at first not due to the idea of possessing it, but simply to let the two experiences compare themselves, like reflections in different mirrors. All this may precede the first look, kiss, or touch; precede ambition, pride, or envy; precede the first declarations which mark the turning pointโfor from here love degenerates into habit, possession, and back to loneliness.
Lawrence Durrell