Elizabeth Bowen Quotes - Page 3

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She walked about with the rather fated expression you see in photographs of girls who have subsequently been murdered, but nothing had so far happened to her.

Elizabeth Bowen

Girl, Expression, Photograph

Elizabeth Bowen (1938). “The death of the heart”, Viking Pr

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What I have found is, anything one keeps hidden should now and then be hidden somewhere else.

Elizabeth Bowen

Somewhere Else, Now And Then, Should

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A romantic man often feels more uplifted with two women than with one: his love seems to hit the ideal mark somewhere between two different faces.

Elizabeth Bowen

Men, Two, Different Faces

Elizabeth Bowen (1938). “The death of the heart”, Viking Pr

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Yes, writing a novel, my boy, is like driving pigs to market - you have one of them making a bolt down the wrong lane; another won't get over the right stile.

Elizabeth Bowen

Writing, Boys, Pigs

Elizabeth Bowen (1950). “Collected Impressions”

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Every love has a poetic relevance of its own; each love brings to light only what to it is relevant. Outside lies the junk-yard of what does not matter.

Elizabeth Bowen

Lying, Light, Junk

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nobody ever dies of an indignity.

Elizabeth Bowen

Embarrassment, Dies, Indignity

Elizabeth Bowen (1950). “Collected Impressions”

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Silence sat in the taxi, as though a stranger had got in.

Elizabeth Bowen

Silence, Stranger, Taxi

Elizabeth Bowen (1952). “The house in Paris”

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What is being said is the effect of something that has happened; at the same time, what is being said is in itself something happening, which will, in turn, leave its effect.

Elizabeth Bowen

Writing, Said, Turns

Elizabeth Bowen (1950). “Collected Impressions”

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The wish to lead out one's lover must be a tribal feeling; the wish to be seen as loved is part of one's self-respect.

Elizabeth Bowen

Respect, Self, Feelings

Elizabeth Bowen (1938). “The death of the heart”, Viking Pr

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Some ideas, like dandelions in lawns, strike tenaciously: you may pull off the top but the root remains, drives down suckers and may even sprout again.

Elizabeth Bowen

Ideas, Roots, May

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nothing is more restful than conformity.

Elizabeth Bowen

Conformity, Restful

Elizabeth Bowen (1950). “Collected Impressions”

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This, my first [bicycle] had an intrinsic beauty. And it opened for me an era of all but flying, which roads emptily crossing theairy, gold-gorsy Common enhanced. Nothing since has equalled that birdlike freedom.

Elizabeth Bowen

Freedom, Flying, Gold

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Darling, I don't want you; I've got no place for you; I only want what you give. I don't want the whole of anyone.... What you want is the whole of me-isn't it, isn't it?-and the whole of me isn't there for anybody. In that full sense you want me I don't exist.

Elizabeth Bowen

Giving, Want, Darling

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I am dead against art's being self-expression. I see an inherent failure in any story which fails to detach itself from the author-detach itself in the sense that a well-blown soap-bubble detaches itself from the bowl of the blower's pipe and spherically takes off into the air as a new, whole, pure, iridescent world. Whereas the ill-blown bubble, as children know, timidly adheres to the bowl's lip, then either bursts or sinks flatly back again.

Elizabeth Bowen

Art, Children, Air

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[A writer] should try not to be too far, personally, below the level of his work.

Elizabeth Bowen

Trying, Levels, Should

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Language is a mixture of statement and evocation.

Elizabeth Bowen

Mixtures, Language, Statements

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Though not all reading children grow up to be writers, I take it that most creative writers must in their day have been reading children.

Elizabeth Bowen

Children, Growing Up, Book

Elizabeth Bowen (2015). “The Mulberry Tree”, p.49, Random House

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Young girls like the excess of any quality. Without knowing, they want to suffer, to suffer they must exaggerate; they like to have loud chords struck on them.

Elizabeth Bowen

Girl, Luxury, Knowing

ELIZABETH BOWEN (1935). “The House in Paris”

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Art is one thing that can go on mattering once it has stopped hurting.

Elizabeth Bowen

Art, Hurt, Memorable

Heat of the Day (1949) ch. 16

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Nothing arrives on paper as it started, and so much arrives that never started at all. To write is always to rave a little-even if one did once know what one meant

Elizabeth Bowen

Writing, Paper, Littles

Elizabeth Bowen (2015). “The Death Of The Heart”, p.7, Random House

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Someone soon to start on a journey is always a little holy.

Elizabeth Bowen

Travel, Journey, Littles

ELIZABETH BOWEN (1935). “The House in Paris”

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The writer, unlike his non-writing adult friend, has no predisposed outlook; he seldom observes deliberately. He sees what he didnot intend to see; he remembers what does not seem wholly possible. Inattentive learner in the schoolroom of life, he keeps some faculty free to veer and wander. His is the roving eye.

Elizabeth Bowen

Eye, Writing, Adults

Elizabeth Bowen (2015). “The Mulberry Tree”, p.58, Random House

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When one is a child, the disposition of objects, tables and chairs and doors, seems part of the natural order: a house-move lets in chaos - as it does for a dog.

Elizabeth Bowen

Dog, Children, Moving

Elizabeth Bowen (1998). “Bowen's Court”

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Dialogue in fiction is what characters do to one another.

Elizabeth Bowen

Character, Fiction, Crafts

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Dialogue should convey a sense of spontaneity but eliminate the repetitiveness of real talk.

Elizabeth Bowen

Real, Writing, Spontaneity

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Born: June 7, 1899
Died: February 22, 1973
Occupation: Novelist
Cite this Page: Citation

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