Austen Quotes - Page 3

• The system - the American one, at least - is a vast and noble experiment. It has been polestar and exemplar for other nations. But from kindergarten until she graduates from college the girl is treated in it exactly like her brothers. She studies the same subjects, becomes proficient at the same sports. Oh, it is a magnificent lore she learns, education for the mind beyond anything Jane Austen or Saint Theresa or even Mrs. Pankhurst ever dreamed. It is truly Utopian. But Utopia was never meant to exist on this disheveled planet.

  Phyllis McGinley

  Girl, Sports, Education

  Phyllis McGinley (1962). “The province of the heart”

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• I can talk about Jane Austen until the cows come home.

  Whit Stillman

  Home, Cows, Jane

  Source: www.openlettersmonthly.com

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• Miss Austen had shown the infinite possibilities of ordinary and present things for the novelist.

  George Saintsbury

  Missing, Novelists, Ordinary

  George Saintsbury (2012). “The English Novel”, p.234, tredition

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• For [Jane Austen and the readers of Pride and Prejudice], as for Mr. Darcy, [Elizabeth Bennett's] solitary walks express the independence that literally takes the heroine out of the social sphere of the houses and their inhabitants, into a larger, lonelier world where she is free to think: walking articulates both physical and mental freedom.

  Rebecca Solnit

  Pride, Journey, Thinking

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• Anyone who has the temerity to write about Jane Austen is aware of [two] facts: first, that of all great writers she is the most difficult to catch in the act of greatness; second, that there are twenty-five elderly gentlemen living in the neighbourhood of London who resent any slight upon her genius as if it were an insult to the chastity of their aunts.

  Virginia Woolf

  Writing, Aunt, Greatness

  Virginia Woolf, Andrew McNeillie (1986). “The Essays of Virginia Woolf: 1925-1928”, Chatto & Windus

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• I always advise children who ask me for tips on being a writer to read as much as they possibly can. Jane Austen gave a young friend the same advice, so I'm in good company there.

  J. K. Rowling

  Children, Writing, Young Friends

  "Of magic and single motherhood". Interview with Margaret Weir, www.salon.com. March 14, 1999.

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• How is it that, a full two centuries after Jane Austen finished her manuscript, we come to the world of Pride and Prejudice and find ourselves transcending customs, strictures, time, mores, to arrive at a place that educates, amuses, and enthralls us? It is a miracle. We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else's mind.

  Anna Quindlen

  Dream, Reading, Pride

  Anna Quindlen (2010). “How Reading Changed My Life”, p.20, Ballantine Books

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• I am a Jane Austenite, and therefore slightly imbecile about Jane Austen. My fatuous expression, and airs of personal immunity-how ill they sit on the face, say,of a Stevensonian! But Jane Austen is so different. She is my favourite author! I read and reread, the mouth open and the mind closed. Shut up in measureless content, I greet her by the name of most kind hostess, while criticism slumbers.

  E. M. Forster

  Air, Expression, Names

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• Jane Austen easily used half a page describing someone else's eyes; she would not appreciate summarizing her reading tastes in ten titles.

  Tracy Chevalier

  Reading, Eye, Appreciate

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• But some characters in books are really real--Jane Austen's are; and I know those five Bennets at the opening of Pride and Prejudice, simply waiting to raven the young men at Netherfield Park, are not giving one thought to the real facts of marriage.

  Dodie Smith

  Real, Book, Character

  Dodie Smith (2017). “I Capture the Castle: Young Adult Edition”, p.65, St. Martin's Griffin

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• She is never alone when she has Her Books. Books, to her, are Friends. Give her Shakespeare or Jane Austen, Meredith or Hardy, and she is Lost - lost in a world of her own. She sleeps so little that most of her nights are spent reading.

  E. M. Delafield

  Book, Reading, Sleep

  E. M. Delafield (2016). “Diary of a Provincial Lady”, p.48, Pan Macmillan

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• As Jane Austen might have put it: It is a truth universally acknowledged that young protagonists in search of adventure must ditch their parents.

  Philip Pullman

  Writing, Adventure, Parent

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• The art and passion of reading well and deeply is waning, but [Jane] Austen still inspires people to become fanatical readers.

  Harold Bloom

  Art, Reading, Passion

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• All my life I thought that the story was over when the hero and heroine were safely engaged -- after all, what's good enough for Jane Austen ought to be good enough for anyone. But it's a lie. The story is about to begin, and every day will be a new piece of the plot.

  Mary Ann Shaffer

  Love, Lying, Hero

  Annie Barrows, Mary Ann Shaffer (2011). “The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society (Random House Reader's Circle Deluxe Reading Group Edition): A Novel”, p.274, Dial Press

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• I am at a loss to understand why people hold Miss Austen's novels at so high a rate, which seem to me vulgar in tone, sterile in artistic invention, imprisoned in their wretched conventions of English society, without genius, wit, or knowledge of the world. Never was life so pinched and narrow. ... All that interests in any character [is this]: has he (or she) the money to marry with? ... Suicide is more respectable.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Suicide, Character, Loss

  "Emerson: Selected Journals 1841 - 1877" by Lawrence Rosenwald (p. 768), 2010.

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• ...in other words, all I want to be is the Jane Austen of south Alabama Interview - March 1964

  Harper Lee

  Alabama, Want, Interviews

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• Now I was more certain than ever of my decision. I could not love a man who did not love Jane Austen.

  Deanna Raybourn

  Men, Decision, Certain

  Deanna Raybourn (2016). “Deanna Raybourn Lady Julia Grey Volume 1: Silent in the Grave\Silent in the Sanctuary\Silent on the Moor”, p.630, MIRA

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• Allegra's Austen wrote about the impact of financial need on the intimate lives of women. If she'd worked in a bookstore, Allegra would have shelved Austen in the horror section.

  Karen Joy Fowler

  Impact, Needs, Bookstores

  Karen Joy Fowler (2005). “The Jane Austen Book Club”, p.4, Penguin

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• My role models were childless: Virginia Woolf, Jane Austen, George Eliot, the Brontes.

  Joyce Carol Oates

  Virginia, Role Models, Roles

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

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• I've done my share of period stuff. I'm not sure why, but people say I have a period face. The bread and butter of British TV is Jane Austen adaptations and bridges and bonnets and boats and horses.

  Tom Hiddleston

  Horse, Bridges, People

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• I imagined being a famous writer would be like being like Jane Austen.

  J. K. Rowling

  Would Be, Fame, Famous Writers

  "'Harry is a lot, lot, lot angrier in this book'". Interview with Jeremy Paxman, www.telegraph.co.uk. June 20, 2003.

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• If there is a heaven, Jane Austen is sitting in a small room with Mother Teresa and Princess Diana, listening to Duran Duran, forever. If there's a hell, she's standing.

  Roddy Doyle

  Mother, Princess, Small Rooms

  "Writing Paddy Clarke Ha Ha Ha" by Roddy Doyle, www.theguardian.com. August 28, 2009.

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• Ever since I was young, I've read Austen and the Brontes. My friends laugh, but those books are always so tragic and wonderful - those stories, they're just incredible.

  Jessica Brown Findlay

  Book, Laughing, Stories

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• Jane Austen is the pinnacle to which all other authors aspire.

  J. K. Rowling

  Literature, Pinnacle, Aspire

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• There are some writers who wrote too much. There are others who wrote enough. There are yet others who wrote nothing like enough to satisfy their admirers, and Jane Austen is certainly one of these.

  Margaret Drabble

  Too Much, Enough, Admirer

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