QUOTES
"The front door was open, and from the street the aroma of desolate lives and desperate living seeped into the oppressive morning air and up Harry's nostrils … "
- Harry's World (p.167)
- Harry's World (p.167)

One of the greatest joys I've ever had from reading is collecting journals full of my favourite quotes from the authors I read. I selected them in the first instance for their impact on me, at the time, touching whatever emotional level they did, and they do vary considerably. So much wisdom has been penned so succinctly and so expertly over the centuries. I often go back through my various journal collections and never cease to enjoy reading the quotes again. They reveal so much about the human condition. They also make one think, and that is always a good thing; perhaps something becoming sadly scarcer in our ever increasingly complicated and time-pressured world, where instant gratification seems to prevail. Any selection of quotes will always be an inherently personal catalogue, and it has to be conceded that we may take different things from the same quotes; we are after all individuals (take a bow, Monty Python!).
Nevertheless, I shamelessly offer the following from my collection, which I will be progressively adding to. From these, if you get even a portion of the enjoyment they have given me, and continue to give me, then I am delighted to have shared them with you.
(Note: I have included the sources for my chosen quotes. One of the most irritating things I find in the reading life is to see a quote without any ready way to locate its source. The page numbers refer to the edition I have, so these can vary between editions. Feel free to contact me if you would like any further source information).
Nevertheless, I shamelessly offer the following from my collection, which I will be progressively adding to. From these, if you get even a portion of the enjoyment they have given me, and continue to give me, then I am delighted to have shared them with you.
(Note: I have included the sources for my chosen quotes. One of the most irritating things I find in the reading life is to see a quote without any ready way to locate its source. The page numbers refer to the edition I have, so these can vary between editions. Feel free to contact me if you would like any further source information).

Albert Camus: (Photograph by United Press International [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons).
As with many writers translated into English, there are different translated editions in existence, so quotes may appear in slightly different forms depending on the source.
1. 'I have tried as best I could to be a man with an ethic, and that is what cost me most.' - Preface to The Wrong Side and The Right Side, p.14.
2. 'In the depths of the winter I finally learned that there lay in me an unconquerable summer.' - Return to Tipasa, p.72.
3. 'A man's works often retrace the story of his nostalgias or his temptations, practically never his own story, especially when they claim to be autobiographical. No man has ever dared describe himself as he is.' - The Enigma, p.60.
More to come ...
As with many writers translated into English, there are different translated editions in existence, so quotes may appear in slightly different forms depending on the source.
1. 'I have tried as best I could to be a man with an ethic, and that is what cost me most.' - Preface to The Wrong Side and The Right Side, p.14.
2. 'In the depths of the winter I finally learned that there lay in me an unconquerable summer.' - Return to Tipasa, p.72.
3. 'A man's works often retrace the story of his nostalgias or his temptations, practically never his own story, especially when they claim to be autobiographical. No man has ever dared describe himself as he is.' - The Enigma, p.60.
More to come ...

W. Somerset Maugham: (Photograph by Carl Van Vechten [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons).
1. 'It is a funny thing about life, if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you often get it …' - The Treasure, p.257, (in Collected Short Stories, vol.2).
2. ' "What gives an ideal beauty is that it's unattainable".' - The doctor in The Narrow Corner, p.144.
3. ' "Tact is the subterfuge the lax avail themselves of to avoid doing their duty".' - Mr Jones in The Vessel of Wrath, p.9, (in Malaysian Stories).
More to come ...
1. 'It is a funny thing about life, if you refuse to accept anything but the best, you often get it …' - The Treasure, p.257, (in Collected Short Stories, vol.2).
2. ' "What gives an ideal beauty is that it's unattainable".' - The doctor in The Narrow Corner, p.144.
3. ' "Tact is the subterfuge the lax avail themselves of to avoid doing their duty".' - Mr Jones in The Vessel of Wrath, p.9, (in Malaysian Stories).
More to come ...

Raymond Chandler:
On the way ...
On the way ...

Ross Macdonald:
On the way ...
On the way ...

George Orwell: (Photograph by Branch of the National Union of Journalists [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons).
1. '… the sex instinct created a world of its own which was outside the Party's control and which therefore had to be destroyed if possible.' - Nineteen Eighty-Four, p.109.
More to come ...
1. '… the sex instinct created a world of its own which was outside the Party's control and which therefore had to be destroyed if possible.' - Nineteen Eighty-Four, p.109.
More to come ...
SUN QUOTES:
From anywhere I could find them, across the genres, here are some quotes about the sun - I love them all! But we start with the crime writers... ROSS MACDONALD 'The clouds were writhing with red fire, as if the sun had plunged in the invisible sea and set it flaming. Only the mountains stood out dark and firm against the conflagration of the sky.' The Drowning Pool, p.44. 'The sun, heavy and red, was almost down on the horizon now. Its image floated like spilled fire on the water.' Black Money, p.46. 'The sun burned like a fire ship on the water, sinking slowly till only a red smoke was left trailing up the sky.' Black Money, p.52. 'Outside, the sun had just gone down. The sunset spread across the sea like a conflagration so intense that it fed on water.' The Blue Hammer, p.154. LAURENT GUILLAUME 'Upriver, the sun was disappearing in a bed of unlikely colours.' White Leopard, p.33. 'The sun was sinking into the riverbed. It seemed to be drowning in a gleaming sheet of blood.' White Leopard, p.237. ELLIOTT CHAZE 'There was the damnedest sunset, smeared like syrup of opals over everything and dripping off the clouds the way the molten metal comes out of the ladle in a steel mill.' Black Wings has my Angel, p.42. GORDON DEMARCO 'The sun sprayed lemony rays of warmth through the window and on to my face.' Frisco Blues, p.123. W. SOMERSET MAUGHAM 'The colour of the sea. It is deep blue in the open sea, wine-coloured under the setting sun; but in the lagoon of an infinite variety, ranging from pale turquoise to the brightest, clearest green; and there the setting sun will turn it for a short moment to liquid gold.' A Writer’s Notebook, p.124. 'The sun was setting and the smooth sea was lucid with pale and various colour, blue, green, salmon-pink, and milky purple, and it was like the subtle and tender colour of silence.' The Narrow Corner, p.45. MARGARET ATWOOD (About a sunset...) '...just a slice of it, tangerine, then flamingo, then watered-down blood, then strawberry ice cream, off to the side of where the sun must be.' Oryx and Crake, p.276. DAVID BROOKS 'When I opened my eyes dawn’s rose had coloured your fingers on the pillow.' Aubade, in The Balcony, p.76. GRAHAM GREENE (After machine-gunning a sampan following a bombing raid...) (Captain Trouin): ' "We will make a little detour. The sunset is wonderful on the calcaire. You must not miss it," he added kindly, like a host who is showing the beauty of his estate, and for a hundred miles we trailed the sunset over the Baie d’Along. The helmeted Martian face looked wistfully out, down the golden groves among the great humps and arches of porous stone, and the wound of murder ceased to bleed.' The Quiet American, pp.148-149. GEORGE ORWELL 'The morning sunlight slanted up the maidan and struck, yellow as goldleaf, against the white face of the bungalow.' Burmese Days, p.70. (About the morning...) 'At that hour there were beautiful faint colours in everything – tender green of leaves, pinkish-brown of earth and tree trunks – like aquarelle washes that would vanish in the later glare.' Burmese Days, p.72. |
"A tall Slavic girl in lingerie, with a rack that would have converted Liberace to the straight team, brushed herself against me, smiling."
- From the Harry short story, "A Sex Kitten for a Cabinet Meeting", in Harry Kenmare, PI - At Your Service (p.59)
- From the Harry short story, "A Sex Kitten for a Cabinet Meeting", in Harry Kenmare, PI - At Your Service (p.59)