Edward St Aubyn Quotes

• Irony is the hardest addiction of all. Forget heroin. Just try giving up irony, the deep-down need to mean two things at once, to be in two places at once, not to be there for the catastrophe of a fixed meaning.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Giving Up, Mean, Two

  46 Copy quote

• No pain is too small if it hurts, but any pain is too big if it's cherished.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Hurt, Pain, Bigs

  15 Copy quote

• People never remeber happiness with the care that they lavish on preserving every detail of their suffering.

  Edward St Aubyn

  People, Suffering, Care

  Edward St Aubyn (2012). “Never Mind”, p.178, Pan Macmillan

  6 Copy quote

• I think that some laughter comes from escaped horror, doesn't it?

  Edward St Aubyn

  Laughter, Thinking, Horror

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Believe, People, Dying

  7 Copy quote

• 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

  Trying, Facts, Dramatic

  4 Copy quote

• Surely: the adverb of a man without an argument.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Men, Argument, Adverbs

  Edward St Aubyn (2016). “The Patrick Melrose Novels: Picador Classic”, p.190, Pan Macmillan

  11 Copy quote

• I see the author as the person who has written; the writer, the one involved in the process of writing. And they're not necessarily friends. The writer is the one I want to reinforce; the author would just feed on the reviews - so I'm in favour of starving him.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Writing, Want, Favour

  5 Copy quote

• Looking after children can be a subtle way of giving up... They become the whole ones, the well ones, the postponement of happiness, the ones who won't drink too much, give up, get divorced, become mentally ill. The part of oneself that's fighting against decay and depression is transferred to guarding them from decay and depression. In the meantime one decays and gets depressed.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Children, Giving Up, Fighting

  7 Copy quote

• The whole Melrose series is an attempt to tell the truth, and is based on the idea that there is some salutary or liberating power in telling the truth.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Ideas, Telling The Truth, Whole

  "Edward St Aubyn: 'Writing is horrible'". Interview with Stephen Moss, www.theguardian.com. August 17, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

• You can only give things up once they start to let you down.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Giving

  Edward St Aubyn (2014). “The Patrick Melrose Novels: Picador Classic”, p.285, Pan Macmillan

  4 Copy quote

• Well, the attractive thing about the subject of happiness is that it is notoriously difficult to write.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Writing, Attractive Things, Difficult

  4 Copy quote

• Detachment is what interests me, seeing how people couldn't have been any other way, how they were the product of forces that they had no control over.

  Edward St Aubyn

  People, Way, Detachment

  4 Copy quote

• Everything was usual. That was depression: being stuck, clinging to an out-of-date version of oneself.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Usual, Clinging, Stuck

  4 Copy quote

• It's no use imagining that bringing great writers together inevitably precipitates great conversation.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Together, Use, Conversation

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  New York, Book, Adorable

  4 Copy quote

• I'm really not responsible for what mental operation people have when they're reading my books other than the ones which are created by literary effects.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Book, Reading, People

  4 Copy quote

• Proust is a hero of mine. I read 'A la recherche' in one go, and I'm a very slow reader. It had an astonishing impact, reading it on my own and being my main company. I think Proust is the most intelligent person to ever have written a novel.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Reading, Hero, Intelligent

  4 Copy quote

• 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

  Winning, Heavyweights, World

  "Edward St Aubyn: 'Writing is horrible'". Interview with Stephen Moss, www.theguardian.com. August 17, 2011.

  4 Copy quote

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

  Edward St Aubyn

  Impossible, Novel, Feels

  4 Copy quote

You May Also Like:

Alan Hollinghurst

Diana Quick

Kiran Desai

Julian Barnes

Karl Ove Knausgard

Francine Prose

Anthony Doerr

Kate Grenville