Christopher Isherwood Quotes

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• We must remember that nothing in this world really belongs to us. At best, we are merely borrowers.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Philosophy, Philosophical, World

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• A few times in my life I've had moments of absolute clarity, when for a few brief seconds the silence drowns out the noise and I can feel rather than think, and things seem so sharp. And the world seems so fresh as though it had all just come into existence. I can never make these moments last. I cling to them, but like everything, they fade. I have lived my life on these moments. They pull me back to the present, and I realize that everything is exactly the way it was meant to be.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Thinking, Silence, Noise

  "Fictional character: George". "A Single Man", www.imdb.com. 2009.

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• Only those who are capable of silliness can be called truly intelligent.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Intelligent, Silliness, Capable

  Christopher Isherwood, James J. Berg, Chris Freeman (2001). “Conversations with Christopher Isherwood”, p.171, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• Life is not so bad if you have plenty of luck, a good physique, and not too much imagination.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Funny, Life, Witty

  Christopher Isherwood (1987). “The Wishing Tree: Christopher Isherwood on Mystical Religion”, Vedanta Press

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• Sometimes awful things have their own beauty.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Awful, Sometimes, Single Man

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• By helping yourself, you are helping humankind. By helping humankind, you are helping yourself. That's the law of all spiritual progress.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Spiritual, Law, Progress

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• Think of two people, living together day after day, year after year, in this small space, standing elbow to elbow cooking at the same small stove, squeezing past each other on the narrow stairs, shaving in front of the same small bathroom mirror, constantly jogging, jostling, bumping against each other’s bodies by mistake or on purpose, sensually, aggressively, awkwardly, impatiently, in rage or in love – think what deep though invisible tracks they must leave, everywhere, behind them!

  Christopher Isherwood

  Mistake, Past, Thinking

  Christopher Isherwood, Don Bachardy, James P. White (1989). “Where Joy Resides: An Isherwood Reader”, Vintage

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• The more I think about myself, the more I'm persuaded that, as a person, I really don't exist. That is one of the reasons why I can't believe in any orthodox religion: I cannot believe in my own soul. No, I am a chemical compound, conditioned by environment and education. My "character" is simply a repertoire of acquired tricks, my conversation a repertoire of adaptations and echoes, my "feelings" are dictated by purely physical, external stimuli.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Atheist, Believe, Character

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• I often feel that worse than the most fiendish Nazis were those Germans who went along with the persecution of the Jews not because they really disliked them but because it was the thing.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Nazi, Persecution, Jew

  "Christopher Isherwood, The Art of Fiction No. 49". Interview with W.I. Scobie, www.theparisreview.org. Spring 1974.

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• The town is an advertisement for itself; none of its charms are left to the visitor's imagination.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Imagination, Towns, Visitors

  Christopher Isherwood (1949). “The Condor and the Cows: A South American Travel-diary”

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• The sea only drowns its lovers.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Sea, Lovers

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• Bad writing is bad not just because the language is humdrum, but the quality of the observation is so poor.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Writing, Quality, Language

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• I am a camera, with its shutter open. Someday, all of this will be developed, printed, fixed.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Cameras, Someday, Fixed

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• The landscape, like Los Angeles itself, is transitional. Impermanence haunts the city, with its mushroom industries--the aircraft perpetually becoming obsolete, the oil which must one day be exhausted, the movies which fill America's theatres for six months and are forgotten. Many of its houses--especially the grander ones--have a curiously disturbing atmosphere, a kind of psychological dankness which smells of anxiety, overdrafts, uneasy lust, whisky, divorce and lies.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Lying, Divorce, Cities

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• She is sighing deeply now with sympathy and delight - the delight of an addict when someone else admits he's hooked, too.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Delight, Hooked, Addict

  Christopher Isherwood, Don Bachardy, James P. White (1989). “Where Joy Resides: An Isherwood Reader”, Vintage

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• But seriously, I believe I'm a sort of Ideal Woman, if you know what I mean. I'm the sort of woman who can take men away from their wives, but I could never keep anybody for long. And that's because I'm the type which every man imagines he wants, until he gets me; and then he finds he doesn't really, after all.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Believe, Mean, Men

  Christopher Isherwood (2008). “The Berlin Stories”, New Directions Publishing

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• What irritates me is the bland way people go around saying, 'Oh, our attitude has changed. We don't dislike these people any more.' But by the strangest coincidence, they haven't taken away the injustice; the laws are still on the books.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Attitude, Book, Taken

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• Someone has to ask you a question," George continues meaningly, "before you can answer it. But it's so seldom you find anyone who'll ask the right questions. Most people aren't that much interested.

  Christopher Isherwood

  People, Answers, Asks

  Christopher Isherwood, Don Bachardy, James P. White (1989). “Where Joy Resides: An Isherwood Reader”, Vintage

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• We live in stirring times- tea-stirring times.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Tea, Stirring

  Christopher Isherwood (2008). “The Berlin Stories”, p.18, New Directions Publishing

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• I'll bet Shakespeare compromised himself a lot; anybody who's in the entertainment industry does to some extent.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Doe, Entertainment, Entertainment Industry

  "Christopher Isherwood, The Art of Fiction No. 49". Interview with W.I. Scobie, www.theparisreview.org. Spring 1974.

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• One should never write down or up to people, but out of yourself.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Writing, People, Should

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• It seems to me that the real clue to your sexual orientation lies in your romantic feelings rather than your sexual feelings. If you are really gay, you are able to fall in love with a man, not just enjoy sex with him.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Falling In Love, Sex, Real

  Interview with Winston Leyland on 1973. "Conversations with Christopher Isherwood". Book edited by James J. Berg and Chris Freeman, p. 106, 2001.

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• But now isn’t simply now. Now is also a cold reminder: one whole day later than yesterday, one year later than last year. Every now is labeled with its date, rendering all past nows obsolete, until — later of sooner — perhaps — no, not perhaps — quite certainly: it will come.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Past, Years, Yesterday

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• George smiles to himself, with entire self-satisfaction. Yes, I am crazy, he thinks. That is my secret; my strength.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Crazy, Thinking, Self

  Christopher Isherwood (1964). “A single man”

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• California is a tragic country - like Palestine, like every Promised Land.

  Christopher Isherwood

  Country, Land, California

  Christopher Isherwood, James J. Berg, Chris Freeman (2001). “Conversations with Christopher Isherwood”, p.91, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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