John Banville Quotes

I write in what we call Hiberno-English, and it would be disastrous to lose my literary accent, as both Joyce and Beckett began to do in exile. In their case the unique tone of voice they each unwittingly adopted only made for a deeper poetic intensity; I suspect if I were to undergo a similar loss the result would not be so productive.

John Banville

• English
• Unique

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Quotes to Explore

• Do I not destroy my enemies when I make them my friends?

  

  Abraham Lincoln
  • Friends
  • Friendship
  • Destroy

• Do not suffer pain and torment without reason. Somebody All-Powerful and All-Compassionate owns everything. Rely on His Power and do not accuse His Compassion. Renounce grief and anxiety ad accept relief. Be rid of your troubles and find serenity.

  

  Said Nursi
  • Power
  • Pain
  • Powerful

• I was too much of an innocent when I went to university.

  

  Naomie Harris
  • Innocent
  • Too Much
  • Too

• Sometimes when you're writing a song and that song comes into your head, it definitely comes from somewhere, like a real experience.

  

  Vance Joy
  • Writing
  • Real
  • Experience

• I started wearing all black around the time I got into Nirvana. I first heard 'Smells Like Teen Spirit' when I was about 12, and I remember jumping on my bed, so excited about it.

  

  Natasha Lyonne
  • Time
  • Remember
  • Black

• Denial of childhood and denial of freedom are the biggest sins which humankind has been committing and perpetuating for ages.

  

  Kailash Satyarthi
  • Freedom
  • Childhood
  • Denial

• I'll tell you what's helped me my entire life. I look at baseball as a game. It's something where people can go out, enjoy and have fun. Nothing more.

  

  Harry Caray
  • People
  • Life
  • Fun

• I don't look like a desert person because I stay indoors most of the day and fool around at night. That's what the desert animals do - they don't have a tan either.

  

  Captain Beefheart
  • Night
  • Day
  • Fool

• I still owe a duty of loyalty to my clients and former clients, so I cannot specify which clients I did not especially find congenial, but the cause was the same.

  

  Floyd Abrams
  • Find
  • Same
  • Loyalty

• The one thing I am now sure of is that if there is such a thing as destiny, it is a result of our passion, be that for money, power, or love. Passion, for better or worse.

  

  M. J. Rose
  • Money
  • Passion
  • Destiny

• Frankly speaking, it's only the script that matters to me the most. If I like the script, then I just commit to myself and go ahead with it. But I also look at the commitment and confidence of the director of the film because it's him who will shape the film.

  

  Vidya Balan
  • Film
  • Confidence
  • Commitment

• My first-ever car, my parents bought me a red Fiat Uno. I was 17 and just so happy to have a car, so I was very fortunate that my parents were in a position to get me one - it was a secondhand car, but I was just so happy to have it.

  

  Victoria Beckham Spice Girls
  • Happy
  • Parents
  • Car

• Intellectuals who live in Hungary, or who wish to work or lecture there, are extremely circumspect in their criticism.

  

  Hari Kunzru
  • Work
  • Live
  • Wish

• I'm of a fearsome mind to throw my arms around every living librarian who crosses my path, on behalf of the souls they never knew they saved.

  

  Barbara Kingsolver
  • Mind
  • Path
  • Living

• It's like that Simpsons joke - they're filming a cow in a movie and they go, 'OK, we'll tape a bunch of cats together to make a cow', and it's like, 'Why don't you just use a cow?'. For some reason that is novel - like, 'Oh, my guitar sounds like a piano and now if I can just get my piano to sound like my guitar'.

  

  Ian Williams Battles
  • Why
  • Together
  • Movie

• When you have endless time, you take all day to go to the grocery store. But, if you have to be at work for 14 hours a day, you manage your time better. I know I do.

  

  Zooey Deschanel
  • Time
  • Work
  • Day

• The President is going to benefit from me reporting directly to him when I arrive.

  

  Dan Quayle
  • President
  • Benefit
  • Directly

• The best physicians are Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, and Dr. Merryman.

  

  Daniel D. Palmer
  • Best
  • Quiet
  • Diet

• I studied literature and Italian at Yale. I wrote my thesis about Italo Svevo, one of my heroes.

  

  Nathaniel Rich
  • Literature
  • Italian
  • Heroes

• No matter how bad the individual, everybody has reasons for why they do what they do.

  

  Chris Pine
  • Why
  • Bad

• I was lucky to start working when German cinema was having an interesting moment. Now the quality is going downhill again because they're insisting on doing comedies. We should know by now that we make good cars but we're not the funniest people.

  

  Daniel Bruhl
  • People
  • Good
  • Interesting

• It was Ronald Reagan who used to say that the 10 most frightening words in the English language are, "I'm from the federal government, and I'm here to help."

  

  P. J. O'Rourke
  • Help
  • Words
  • English

• Trump brings power to those who hate their lack of it, and his message is tonic to communities that have felt nothing but decline for decades.

  

  J. D. Vance
  • Power
  • Hate
  • Trump

• I write in what we call Hiberno-English, and it would be disastrous to lose my literary accent, as both Joyce and Beckett began to do in exile. In their case the unique tone of voice they each unwittingly adopted only made for a deeper poetic intensity; I suspect if I were to undergo a similar loss the result would not be so productive.

  

  John Banville
  • English
  • Unique