Aubyn Quotes

All she remembered was that Caligula had planned to torture his wife to find out why he was so devoted to her. What was David's excuse, she wondered. — Edward St. Aubyn

It seems people spend the majority of their lives believing they're dying, with the only consolation being that at one point they get to be right. — Edward St. Aubyn

At the beginning, there had been talk of using some of her money to start a home for alcoholics. In a sense they had succeeded. — Edward St. Aubyn

Nevertheless, she treasured the idea that the Fauberts were connected to the earth in some wholesome way that the rest of us had forgotten. — Edward St. Aubyn

Nothing so stubborn could change until it became more painful to avoid than to confront. — Edward St. Aubyn

Thanks for putting that in terms I can easily grasp,' said Malcolm, without showing the patronizing bitch the slightest sign of irony. — Edward St. Aubyn

As Anne watched her, she could not help thinking of the age-old question every woman asks herself at some time or other: do I have to swallow it? — Edward St. Aubyn

But that, after all, was the point of romantic folly. If it hadn't all gone horribly wrong, it wouldn't have been the real thing. — Edward St. Aubyn

Balance was so elusive: either it was like this, too fast, or there was the heavy thing like wading through a swamp to get to the end of a sentence. — Edward St. Aubyn

His conscience, like a sunburnt scorpion, was stinging itself to death. — Edward St. Aubyn

The thing about the 'Melrose' novels is that I have to feel they're impossible when I set out. — Edward St. Aubyn

After less than a year together they now slept in separate rooms because Victor's snoring, and nothing else about him, kept her awake at night. — Edward St. Aubyn

She had brushed her teeth before vomiting as well, never able to utterly crush the optimistic streak in her nature. — Edward St. Aubyn

She was ghastly and quite mad, but when I grew up I figured her worst punishment was to be herself and I didn't have to do anything more. — Edward St. Aubyn

If a woman could win love with her body, the world would have no bastards. — Meredith Duran

the waiting-room atmosphere in which death was the delayed train ... — Edward St. Aubyn

The Booker 2011 is of no more interest to me than the world heavyweight championship, which I'm not going to win either. It's irrelevant. — Edward St. Aubyn

Anne came downstairs wearing a white cotton dress almost indistinguishable from the white cotton nightgown she had taken off. — Edward St. Aubyn

Well, the attractive thing about the subject of happiness is that it is notoriously difficult to write. — Edward St. Aubyn

She tried to walk more slowly up the hill. God, her mind was racing, racing in neutral, — Edward St. Aubyn

The best way to contradict him is to let him talk — Edward St. Aubyn

The shock of standing again under the wide pale sky, completely exposed. This must be what the oyster feels when the lemon juice falls. — Edward St. Aubyn

He was just one of those Englishmen who was always saying silly things to sound less pompous, and pompous things to sound less silly. — Edward St. Aubyn

It was never quite clear to Eleanor why the English thought it was so distinguished to have done nothing for a long time in the same place, — Edward St. Aubyn

Nobody can find me here, he thought. And then he thought, what if nobody can find me here? — Edward St. Aubyn

People never remember happiness with the care that they lavish on preserving every detail of their suffering. — Edward St. Aubyn

Most people wait for their parents to die with a mixture of tremendous sadness and plans for a new swimming pool. — Edward St. Aubyn

They had drifted apart, as people do when they promise to stay in touch; the ones who are going to stay in touch don't need to promise. — Edward St. Aubyn

It's no use imagining that bringing great writers together inevitably precipitates great conversation. — Edward St. Aubyn

I'm not trying to uncover the facts of my life but to discover the dramatic truth of the situations I was in. — Edward St. Aubyn

Snobbery is one of the things one should be most discriminating about — Edward St. Aubyn

I think that some laughter comes from escaped horror, doesn't it? — Edward St. Aubyn

The first book I fell in love with was 'Little Toot,' the story of an adorable tugboat operating out of New York Harbor. — Edward St. Aubyn

Everything was usual. That was depression: being stuck, clinging to an out-of-date version of oneself. — Edward St. Aubyn

Surely: the adverb of a man without an argument. — Edward St. Aubyn

No pain is too small if it hurts, but any pain is too big if it's cherished. — Edward St. Aubyn

Made him more conscious of how little experience he had of saying what he meant. — Edward St. Aubyn

If anything should take place behind closed doors, it was cruelty and betrayal. — Edward St. Aubyn

We are entering the Dark Ages, my friend, but this time there will be lots of neon, and screen savers, and street lighting. — Edward St. Aubyn

In England, art was much less likely to be mentioned in polite society than sexual perversions or methods of torture. — Edward St. Aubyn

It was unbelievable, there was the dry-cleaning ticket again. There must be more than one. — Edward St. Aubyn

You can only give things up once they start to let you down. — Edward St. Aubyn

I feel on the verge of a great transformation, which may be as simple as becoming interested in other things. — Edward St. Aubyn

Rome wasn't deconstructed in a day. — Edward St. Aubyn

At the same time, his past lay before him like a corpse waiting to be embalmed. — Edward St. Aubyn

People think they are individuals because they use the word "I" so often, Patrick commented. — Edward St. Aubyn

I was thinking that a life is just the history of what we give our attention to,' said Patrick. 'The rest is packaging. — Edward St. Aubyn

That was the wonderful thing about historical novels, one met so many famous people. It was like reading a very old copy of Hello! magazine. — Edward St. Aubyn