Home / Authors / John Fowles

John Fowles

John Fowles Quotes

Novelist

John Fowles was an English novelist known for his unique narrative techniques and profound psychological insights. His works often explore themes of human nature, morality, and existentialism, with 'The French Lieutenant's Woman' and 'The Magus' being his most famous works.

Filter quotes by topic

All Men World Ifs Life People Art Knows Thinking War Beautiful Love Past Sex Writing Feelings Hate John Fowles The Magus Death Want

Famous John Fowles Quotes

“The two of us in that room. No past, no future. All intense deep that-time-only. A feeling that everything must end, the music, ourselves, the moon, everything. That if you get to the heart of things you find sadness for ever and ever, everywhere; but a beautiful silver sadness, like a Christ face.”

Heart Past Beautiful Christ Beauty Music Sadness Future Sad Moon Intense Silver Deep Feeling End Ending Ourselves Ever Everywhere

Book:The Collector

Source: The Collector

“I knew that on that island one was driven back into the past. There was so much space, so much silence, so few meetings that one too easily saw out of the present, and then the past seemed ten times closer than it was.”

Past Nature Solitude Living In The Past

Book:The Magus

Source: The Magus

“Images are inherently fascistic because they overstamp the truth, however dim and blurred, of the real past experience; as if, faced with ruins, we must turn architects, not archeologists.”

Past Photography Memory Nostalgia Images Ruin

Book:Daniel Martin

Source: Daniel Martin

“A mixture, before the English, of irritation and bafflement, of having this same language, same past, so many same things, and yet not belonging to them any more. Being worse than rootless... speciesless.”

Past Language Roots England Belonging English Irritation Belong Rootless Bafflement Speciesless

Book:The Magus

Source: The Magus

“You do not even think of your own past as quite real; you dress it up, you gild it or blacken it, censor it, tinker with it...fictionalize it, in a word, and put it away on a shelf - your book, your romanced autobiography. We are all in the flight from the real reality. That is the basic definition of Homo sapiens.”

Book:The French Lieutenant’s Woman

Source: The French Lieutenant’s Woman

“All pasts are like poems; one can derive a thousand things, but not live in them.”

Past Poetry Thousand

Book:The Enigma of Stonehenge

Source: The Enigma of Stonehenge

“It is not only species of animal that die out, but whole species of feeling. And if you are wise you will never pity the past for what it did not know, but pity yourself for what it did.”

Ifs Knows Whole Feelings Past Dies Animal Wise Species Pity

Author:John Fowles

“We lay on the ground and kissed. Perhaps you smile. That we only lay on the ground and kissed. You young people can lend your bodies now, play with them, give them as we could not. But remember that you have paid a price: that of a world rich in mystery and delicate emotion. It is not only species of animal that die out. But whole species of feeling. And if you are wise you will never pity the past for what it did not know. But pity yourself for what it did.”

People Ifs Knows World Giving Play Whole Feelings Body Past Remember Young Dies Animal Emotion Rich Wise Mystery Paid Lays Species Your Body Pity Delicate

Author:John Fowles

“Like all mystics (and many novelists, not least the present one) he is baffled, a child, before the real now; far happier out of it, in a narrative past or a prophetic future, locked inside that weird tence grammar does not allow, the imaginary present.”

Writing Children Doe Real Past Narrative Novelists Songwriting Locked Imaginary Grammar Prophetic Baffled

Book:A Maggot

Source: A Maggot

About the Author

Born: March 31, 1926
Died: November 5, 2005
Known for: Novelist
Quotes: 257

Related Topics

Men World Ifs Life People Art Knows Thinking War Beautiful Love Past Sex Writing Feelings Hate John Fowles The Magus Death Want

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

The MagusRelated source material

The CollectorRelated source material

The French Lieutenant’s WomanRelated source material

THE FRENCH LIEUTENANT'S WOMANRelated source material

Daniel MartinRelated source material

The AristosRelated source material

THE FRENCH LIEUTENTANT'S WOMANRelated source material

WormholesRelated source material

The TreeRelated source material

ÁristosRelated source material

Similar Authors

Leo TolstoyBrowse related quotes
Johann Wolfgang von GoetheBrowse related quotes
Mehmet Murat IldanBrowse related quotes
Virginia WoolfBrowse related quotes
Gilbert K. ChestertonBrowse related quotes
D. H. LawrenceBrowse related quotes
Fyodor DostoevskyBrowse related quotes
Ralph Waldo EmersonBrowse related quotes
Friedrich NietzscheBrowse related quotes
Charles BukowskiBrowse related quotes