Anita Brookner

"Life... is not simply a series of exciting new ventures. The future is not always a whole new ball game. There tends to be unfinished business. One trails all sorts of things around with one, things that simply won't be got rid of."

"Time misspent in youth is sometimes all the freedom one ever has."

"Accountability in friendship is the equivalent of love without strategy."

"Life... is not simply a series of exciting new ventures. The future is not always a whole new ball game. There tends to be unfinished business. One trails all sorts of things around with one, things that simply won't be got rid of."

"Existentialism is about being a saint without God being your own hero, without all the sanction and support of religion or society."

"The essence of romantic love is that wonderful beginning, after which sadness and impossibility may become the rule."