Like many rich men, he thought in anecdotes; like many simple women, she thought in terms of biography.
~ Anita Brookner - [Thoughts and Thinking]

Existentialism is about being a saint without God; being your own hero, without all the sanction and support of religion or society.
~ Anita Brookner - [Philosophers and Philosophy]

Romanticism is not just a mode; it literally eats into every life. Women will never get rid of just waiting for the right man.
~ Anita Brookner - [Romance and Romanticism]

The essence of romantic love is that wonderful beginning, after which sadness and impossibility may become the rule.
~ Anita Brookner - [Romance and Romanticism]

What is interesting about self-analysis is that it leads nowhere -- it is an art form in itself.
~ Anita Brookner - [Introspection]

You can never betray the people who are dead, so you go on being a public Jew; the dead can't answer slurs, but I'm here. I would love to think that Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, but he doesn't.
~ Anita Brookner - [Judaism and Jews]

Real love is a pilgrimage. It happens when there is no strategy, but it is very rare because most people are strategists.
~ Anita Brookner - [Love]

A man can go from being a lover to being a stranger in three moves flat but a woman under the guise of friendship will engage in acts of duplicity which come to light very much later. There are different species of self-justification.
~ Anita Brookner - [Lovers]

Writing novels preserves you in a state of innocence -- a lot passes you by -- simply because your attention is otherwise diverted.
~ Anita Brookner - [Fiction]

Accountability in friendship is the equivalent of love without strategy.
~ Anita Brookner - [Friends and Friendship]

All good fortune is a gift of the gods, and you don't win the favor of the ancient gods by being good, but by being bold.
~ Anita Brookner - [God]

No blame should attach to telling the truth. But it does, it does.
~ Anita Brookner - [Confession]

She was a handsome woman of forty-five and would remain so for many years.
~ Anita Brookner - [Age and Aging]

The lessons taught in great books are misleading. The commerce in life is rarely so simple and never so just.
~ Anita Brookner - [Books and Reading]

A man of such obvious and exemplary charm must be a liar.
~ Anita Brookner - [Charm]

A complete woman is probably not a very admirable creature. She is manipulative, uses other people to get her own way, and works within whatever system she is in.
~ Anita Brookner - [Women]

Good women always think it is their fault when someone else is being offensive. Bad women never take the blame for anything.
~ Anita Brookner - [Women]

It will be a pity if women in the more conventional mould are to be phased out, for there will never be anyone to go home to.
~ Anita Brookner - [Women]

Great writers are the saints for the godless.
~ Anita Brookner - [Writers and Writing]

Time misspent in youth is sometimes all the freedom one ever has.
~ Anita Brookner - [Youth]