Existential Vacuums: Anita Brookner, Falling Slowly

Aphorism 127: “Regulate your disappointments!” Chapter Nine

Full Quote: “What was much worse was that Beatrice, whom she loved, was beginning to resemble their mother, not only physically, in certain gestures, but in her refusal to regulate her own disappointments.”

Aphorism 126: “Neglect is not easily forgiven!” Chapter Eight

Aphorism 125: “Be certain that there are no witnesses to bad thinking!” Chapter Seven

Full Quote: “Briefly she was glad that there were no witnesses to the evidence of bad thinking.”

Aphorism 124: “Emancipation and freedom often brings with them unsleeping anxiety!” Chapter Six

Full Quote: “That freedom had, she now saw, proved illusory. Emancipation, flight, had brought with them an unsleeping anxiety.”

Aphorism 123: “Survive your history!” Chapter one

Full Quote: “They had survived their history, and besides, they had no other choices.”

Aphorism 122: “A library allows communion with true achievement!” Chapter one

Full Quote: “She could not now decide whether a library, any library, was a way out or a way in, a way out of daily life which contained too much confusion and wariness, or a way in to silent communion with true achievement..”

Brookner, Heger, Pamuck, Rice: Random Pithy Thoughts

Aphorism 109: "Know it by its absence!" Ann Rice

Full Quote: "In my book, the one thing he will not know is the intimacy of marriage. He said, 'I will know it by its absence.'" as quoted in the Times Picayune march 5, 2008 by Susan Larson in her review of "Christ the Lord: The Road to Cana."

Aphorism 108: "Give everything you can, but first learn to take!" Anita Brookner, The Debut

Full Quote: "'I will give you everything I can,' he said, reaching for hand and meeting her wide eyes. 'But first you must learn to take.'"

Aphorism 107: "Provide a counterpoint!" Susan Heger

Full Quote: "The sharp formal lines of the pond connect the house to its grounds and provide a counter point to the scattered stepping-stone path." from the Times-Picayune Living, May 2007, "Getting back to green."

Aphorism 106: "Take pleasure in observation!" Orham Pamuk

Full Quote: "His face was illuminated not by the nearby candle, but by the pleasure of observations itself." Chapter One, My Name is Red.

Anita Brookner, The Misalliance

Aphorism 90: “Free will is a terrible burden!”

Full Quote: “That is they may want it theoretically, but free will, I find, is a terrible burden.” Chapter One

Aphorism 89: “The happy climates are reserved for those with the determination to seek them!”

Full Quote: “..she was statistically sure that somewhere there was heat, there was sunshine, and radiance, and that this happy climate was reserved for those who had the determination to seek it.” Chapter Two

Aphorism 88: “Be prepared to pay for your own entertainment!”

Full Quote: “And I did want to know. And now I do. And must probably be prepared to pay for my entertainment.” Chapter 4

Aphorism 87: “Well worn phrases please by their handiness!”

Full Quote: “..she had become even less communicative than before, using well-worn phrases that apparently pleased her by their handiness..” Chapter Five

Anita Brookner: Hotel du Lac, Final

Aphorism 74: “Celebrate the person that you are!”

Full Quote: “And the enormous celebration of her own person, of her physical charm, so ruthlessly yet innocently set forth, was this altogether attractive in a woman of her age?” Chapter Six

Aphorism 73: “It is a mistake to confuse happiness with one particular situation!”

Full Quote: “’It is a great mistake,’ he resume, after a pause, ‘to confuse happiness with one particular situation, one particular person.’” Chapter Seven

Aphorism 72: “There is a sorrow of reminiscence!”

Full Quote: “Her mother was stimulated into reminiscences of the coffee houses of her youth, and had talked vividly and amusingly, before falling once again into the sorrow of reminiscence.” Chapter 8

Aphorism 71: “Outwit disappointment!

Full Quote: “But Edith, who had spent the years of her youth in silence and wariness, and who, in order to outwit disappointment, had learnt not to make claims.” Chapter 12

Anita Brookner Interview by John Haffenden

Aphorism 62: “Regression effect acknowledged, the centre cannot hold!”

Full Quote: “But the centre cannot hold. Those two activities that you've mentioned are outside the natural order, I only ever wanted children, six sons.” Anita Brookner as quoted by John Haffenden, “Novelists in Interview,” London, New York, Methuen

Aphorism 61: “One's character determines one's fate!”

Full Quote: “I think one's character or predisposition determines one's fate. I'm afraid.” See above

Aphorism 60: “The power of images!”

Full Quote: “ What attracted me to art history is the power of images which act differently from words. Images recur in a way that words don’t.”

Aphorism 59: "Pull order out of chaos!"

Full Quote: "The artists of the eighteenth century were obsessed with pulling order out of the surrounding chaos, whereas in the nineteenth century it seemed more powerful and more valid to dissolve order . . . more true to the human condition."

Anita Brookner: The Bay of Angels, 2001.

Aphorism 47: “Prefer to suffer!”

Full Quote: “Uncensored behavior seemed to me unbelievably dangerous, and like the Spartan boy with the fox under his shirt I preferred to suffer.” Chapter Six

Aphorism 48: “Beware of uncensored behavior!”

Full Quote: see 47 above

Aphorism 49: “Pay your dues to friendship!”

Full Quote: “Thus I failed to pay my dues to friendship, persuading myself that in time I should do what was expected of and offer up my broken hopes for their scrutiny.” Chapter Six

Aphorism 50: “Never allow unhappiness to become routine!”

Full Quote: “It was after all a banal disappointment. My unhappiness became routine, my secret dialogues with an absent Adam ceased to ramify.” Chapter Six

Anita Brookner, Hotel du Lac Part I

Aphorism 43: “Certainly you will bore others but do not be allowed to bore yourself!”

Full Quote: “I have held this rather dim and trusting personality together for a considerable length of time, and although I have certainly bored others I was not to be allowed to bore myself.” Chapter 1

Aphorism 44: “Drink tea with delicacy!”

Full Quote: “Leaning back in her chair, her cup and saucer raised to her chin, this lady drank her tea with some delicacy, … “ Chapter 1

Aphorism 45: “Acquire a proper sense of your own presence!”

Full Quote: “..as she went towards the stairs there seemed to be a sudden emanation of a rosy scent, signaling the sort of preparation made by someone with a proper sense of her own presence.” Chapter 2

Aphorism 46: “Enjoy contact with alien species!”

Full Quote: “ Edith acquiesced to this readily enough, not because of her plight, which she saw as irremediable but not entirely serious, but because Mrs Pusey present her with the opportunity to examine, and to enjoy, contact with an alien species.” Chapter 3

Latecomers by Anita Brookner: Part One

Aphorism Six: "Discover the delight of generosity!”

Full Quote: “Fibich sent his cigarette ration to Hartmann, who was gradually discovering the delights of generosity.” Page 11 Pantheon Books, 1988.

Aphorism Seven: “Waiting demands courage!”

Full Quote: “But waiting demanded so much courage, and she was not a brave woman.” P. 23.

Aphorism Eight: “The gift of beauty may not necessarily be fatal!”

Full Quote: “The gift of beauty may not necessarily be fatal; on the other hand it may distort the prospects of those who possess it.” P. 78

Aphorism Nine: “Cultivate the gift of finding life entertaining!”

Full Quote: “Hartman had the gift, which Fibich never had, of finding life entertaining: his bonhomie rarely faltered.” P. 84.