Anthony Burgess Quotes
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'We believe in Allah, we take the Koran as a sacred book. In our land we broke the power of infidel Rum, in his own land we struck down her Sultan whom men called the Pope, in Malta we slew the Knights, sworn enemies of Islam. Inform your people that we are sent by Allah to geld the evil Turk and raise high the people of the Nile.'
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Mr Raj had been purely Orientally and fancifully complimentary (‘So great a man, his lingam as long and thick as a tree, the father of whole villages’).
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‘What you could do with is a nice strong cup of tea, sir. I’ll tell the kuki to make you one.’ ‘Does it really do any good, Nabby? (That was better.) ‘I’ve tried every damn thing.’....
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'Salam aleikum.'
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I know little about the women of my own race...
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'We're in control, and we have what we want!'
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'As for your circumcisions, the chief modin can arrange all. Your wine must return to the earth, whence the grape came. Haram.'
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…he had to admit to a faint admiration (faint as angostura colouring gin and water)
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She sank again into the salty water...into the delicious warm brine-tasting depths of her grief.
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Lydgate opened the sort of letter…'My dear husband I very good…I come in flying ship…we be very happy…love.' It was as satisfactory a letter as he had ever received from a woman.
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'…as the cinema shows us, they are much more accessible and, for that matter, much more wanton than our own women'
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'All right,' said Rowlandson. He began shakily to count out notes. Near-broken, he was still an Englishman; he would not bargain.
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‘…you read mostly menus and the moles on whores’ bellies….’
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'The scientific approach to life is not necessarily appropriate to states of visceral anguish.'
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...even the police discussed this violence as possibly coming within the scope of their terms of reference.
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From ancient drains and sewers of the language (maritime inns and brothels…), from scrawls in the catacombs…whoremasters’ chapbooks…the vocabulary of tavern brawls
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'...reality’s always dull, you know...'
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...an Empire now crashing about their ears. The Sikh smiled at the vanity of human aspirations.
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...like a ship, clean and trim on a dirty sea of pox and camel-dung.
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The Antipods…were always ready to burst.
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Singapura means lion-city; prehistoric, myopic, Sanskrit-speaking visitors having spotted a mangy tiger or two in the mangroves. Sly Malays sometimes call it Singa pura-pura, which means ‘pretending to be a lion’….It is a profoundly provincial town pretending to be a metropolis.
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The dog now slept, occasionally farting very gently.
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...the dark brought out the prostitutes, Malay divorcees mostly, quietly moving from light to light, gaudy and graceful, like other of night’s creatures.
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...the prophet of harmless solace in a harsh world....