Anthony Burgess Quotes

Books in a large university library system: 2,000,000. Books in an average large city library: 10,000. Average number of books in a chain bookstore: 30,000. Books in an average neighborhood branch library: 20,000.

Every dogma has its day.

I didn't think; I experimented.

I must say that acting was good training for the political life that lay ahead of us.

If you believe in an unseen Christ, you will believe in the unseen Christlike potential of others.

Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone.

Life is a wretched gray Saturday, but it has to be lived through.

One of the delights known to age, and beyond the grasp of youth, is that of Not Going.

Readers are plentiful: thinkers are rare.

The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent, experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it, if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.

The possession of a book becomes a substitute for reading it.

To write is to become disinterested. There is a certain renunciation in art.

We all need money, but there are degrees of desperation.

Women thrive on novelty and are easy meat for the commerce of fashion. Men prefer old pipes and torn jackets.