1938-, British Novelist, Art Historian
A complete woman is probably not a very admirable creature. She is manipulative, uses other people to get her own way, and works within whatever system she is in.
Anita Brookner – [Women]


A man can go from being a lover to being a stranger in three moves flat but a woman under the guise of friendship will engage in acts of duplicity which come to light very much later. There are different species of self-justification.
Anita Brookner – [Lovers]


A man of such obvious and exemplary charm must be a liar.
Anita Brookner – [Charm]


Accountability in friendship is the equivalent of love without strategy.
Anita Brookner – [Friends and Friendship]


All good fortune is a gift of the gods, and you don't win the favor of the ancient gods by being good, but by being bold.
Anita Brookner – [God]


Existentialism is about being a saint without God; being your own hero, without all the sanction and support of religion or society.
Anita Brookner – [Philosophers and Philosophy]


Good women always think it is their fault when someone else is being offensive. Bad women never take the blame for anything.
Anita Brookner – [Women]


Great writers are the saints for the godless.
Anita Brookner – [Writers and Writing]


It will be a pity if women in the more conventional mould are to be phased out, for there will never be anyone to go home to.
Anita Brookner – [Women]


Like many rich men, he thought in anecdotes; like many simple women, she thought in terms of biography.
Anita Brookner – [Thoughts and Thinking]


No blame should attach to telling the truth. But it does, it does.
Anita Brookner – [Confession]


Real love is a pilgrimage. It happens when there is no strategy, but it is very rare because most people are strategists.
Anita Brookner – [Love]


Romanticism is not just a mode; it literally eats into every life. Women will never get rid of just waiting for the right man.
Anita Brookner – [Romance and Romanticism]


She was a handsome woman of forty-five and would remain so for many years.
Anita Brookner – [Age and Aging]


The essence of romantic love is that wonderful beginning, after which sadness and impossibility may become the rule.
Anita Brookner – [Romance and Romanticism]


The lessons taught in great books are misleading. The commerce in life is rarely so simple and never so just.
Anita Brookner – [Books and Reading]


Time misspent in youth is sometimes all the freedom one ever has.
Anita Brookner – [Youth]


What is interesting about self-analysis is that it leads nowhere — it is an art form in itself.
Anita Brookner – [Introspection]


Writing novels preserves you in a state of innocence — a lot passes you by — simply because your attention is otherwise diverted.
Anita Brookner – [Fiction]


You can never betray the people who are dead, so you go on being a public Jew; the dead can't answer slurs, but I'm here. I would love to think that Jesus wants me for a sunbeam, but he doesn't.
Anita Brookner – [Judaism and Jews]