Beryl Bainbridge Quotes

Beryl Bainbridge offers plain reflections on childhood's lasting ache and the weight of growing up.

15 quotes

1. I am of the firm belief that everybody could write books and I never understand why they don't. After all, everyone speaks. Once the grammar has been learnt it is simply talking on paper and in time learning what not to say.

2. Being constantly with the children was like wearing a pair of shoes that were expensive and too small. She couldn't bear to throw them out, but they gave her blisters.

3. Everything else you grow out of, but you never recover from childhood.

4. When passion is mutual, there is always the danger of the fire burning to ashes.

5. Women are programmed to love completely, and men are programmed to spread it around. We are fools to think it's any different.

6. I've never been put down by a man, unless I deserved it, and have never felt inferior.

7. The prize I value most was given to me 60 years ago. I was named the girl with the cleanest fingernails.

8. Moonlight lined the windowsills like a fall of snow.

9. The sun burnt on, drugging everything with warmth.

10. I've never been drawn to the feminist movement. I was brought up to believe that men had little to do with the home or children - except to bring in the money.

11. There is nothing more guaranteed to reduce a man to the essentials than to live beneath the sky.

12. no one had experiences any more, only traumas.

13. The vital accessories to my work are my reference books, such as the complete Shakespeare and a prayer book, and a large refuse bin.

14. It seems to me that a mutually beneficial relationship between a man and woman requires the man to be dominant. A sensible woman will allow the man to think he is the most important partner.

15. It is the generation of the unemphatic. Steal, kill, lie, fornicate, but beware of indulging with conviction.