Angus Wilson Quotes & Sayings

Once a Catholic always a Catholic. — Angus Wilson

All the seven deadly sins are self destroying, morbid appetites, but in their early stages at least, lust and gluttony, averice and sloth know some gratification, while anger and pride have power, even though that power eventually destroys itself. Envy is impotent, numbed with fear, never ceasing in its appetite, and it knows no gratification, but endless self torment. It has the ugliness of a trapped rat, which gnaws its own foot in an effort to escape. — Angus Wilson

But you mustn't be too sane, darlings. It really won't do in this family. — Angus Wilson

Envy has the ugliness of a trapped rat that has gnawed its own foot in its effort to escape. — Angus Wilson

The impulse to write a novel comes from a momentary unified vision of life. — Angus Wilson

People are able to live with only half a heart, to live without real compassion, because they are able to use words that are only forms. — Angus Wilson

I opened the large central window of my office room to its full on the fine early May morning. Then I stood for a few moments, breathing in the soft, warm air that was charged with the scent of white lilacs below. — Angus Wilson

Fiction writing is a kind of magic. If I communicate the magic spell ... it loses its force for me. — Angus Wilson

You have a perfect right to consign us all to hell, rector, but you must allow us the choice of how we get there.
Raspberry Jam — Angus Wilson

The roots of art and play lie very close together. — Angus Wilson

The novelist must be his own most harsh critic and also his own most loving admirer and about both he must say nothing. — Angus Wilson

Gerald Middleton was a man of mildly but persistently depressive temperament. Such men are not at their best at breakfast, nor is the week before Christmas their happiest time. — Angus Wilson

Life isn't just to be found, you have to work for it. — Angus Wilson

Life can't be put on paper in all its complexity. — Angus Wilson

Between Margaret's fine edged art and Glady's rough simplicity, where did the greater feminine solace lie? True art, after all, is simple. — Angus Wilson

I have no concern for the common man except that he should not be so common. — Angus Wilson

'Youth is the time for loving, so poets always say. — Angus Wilson

The opportunities for heroism are limited in this kind of world: the most people can do is sometimes not to be as weak as they've been at other times. — Angus Wilson

All fiction for me is a kind of magic and trickery, a confidence trick, trying to make people believe something is true that isn't. — Angus Wilson