Edward St Aubyn Quotes

• Irony is the hardest addiction of all. Forget heroin. Just try giving up irony, the deep-down need to mean two things at once, to be in two places at once, not to be there for the catastrophe of a fixed meaning.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Giving Up, Mean, Two

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• No pain is too small if it hurts, but any pain is too big if it's cherished.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Hurt, Pain, Bigs

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• People never remeber happiness with the care that they lavish on preserving every detail of their suffering.

  Edward St Aubyn

  People, Suffering, Care

  Edward St Aubyn (2012). “Never Mind”, p.178, Pan Macmillan

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• I think that some laughter comes from escaped horror, doesn't it?

  Edward St Aubyn

  Laughter, Thinking, Horror

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• It seems people spend the majority of their lives believing they're dying, with the only consolation being that at one point they get to be right.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Believe, People, Dying

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• I'm not trying to uncover the facts of my life but to discover the dramatic truth of the situations I was in.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Trying, Facts, Dramatic

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• I see the author as the person who has written; the writer, the one involved in the process of writing. And they're not necessarily friends. The writer is the one I want to reinforce; the author would just feed on the reviews - so I'm in favour of starving him.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Writing, Want, Favour

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• Surely: the adverb of a man without an argument.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Men, Argument, Adverbs

  Edward St Aubyn (2016). “The Patrick Melrose Novels: Picador Classic”, p.190, Pan Macmillan

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• Looking after children can be a subtle way of giving up... They become the whole ones, the well ones, the postponement of happiness, the ones who won't drink too much, give up, get divorced, become mentally ill. The part of oneself that's fighting against decay and depression is transferred to guarding them from decay and depression. In the meantime one decays and gets depressed.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Children, Giving Up, Fighting

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• The whole Melrose series is an attempt to tell the truth, and is based on the idea that there is some salutary or liberating power in telling the truth.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Ideas, Telling The Truth, Whole

  "Edward St Aubyn: 'Writing is horrible'". Interview with Stephen Moss, www.theguardian.com. August 17, 2011.

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• You can only give things up once they start to let you down.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Giving

  Edward St Aubyn (2014). “The Patrick Melrose Novels: Picador Classic”, p.285, Pan Macmillan

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• Well, the attractive thing about the subject of happiness is that it is notoriously difficult to write.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Writing, Attractive Things, Difficult

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• Everything was usual. That was depression: being stuck, clinging to an out-of-date version of oneself.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Usual, Clinging, Stuck

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• Detachment is what interests me, seeing how people couldn't have been any other way, how they were the product of forces that they had no control over.

  Edward St Aubyn

  People, Way, Detachment

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• Proust is a hero of mine. I read 'A la recherche' in one go, and I'm a very slow reader. It had an astonishing impact, reading it on my own and being my main company. I think Proust is the most intelligent person to ever have written a novel.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Reading, Hero, Intelligent

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• It's no use imagining that bringing great writers together inevitably precipitates great conversation.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Together, Use, Conversation

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• The first book I fell in love with was 'Little Toot,' the story of an adorable tugboat operating out of New York Harbor.

  Edward St Aubyn

  New York, Book, Adorable

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• I'm really not responsible for what mental operation people have when they're reading my books other than the ones which are created by literary effects.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Book, Reading, People

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• The Booker 2011 is of no more interest to me than the world heavyweight championship, which I'm not going to win either. It's irrelevant.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Winning, Heavyweights, World

  "Edward St Aubyn: 'Writing is horrible'". Interview with Stephen Moss, www.theguardian.com. August 17, 2011.

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• The thing about the 'Melrose' novels is that I have to feel they're impossible when I set out.

  Edward St Aubyn

  Impossible, Novel, Feels

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