Possession

by A.S. Byatt

the existence of the same Truths in all Religions is a great argument both for and against the paramount Truthfulness of One.

‘A man may be in as just possession of truth as of a City, and yet be forced to surrender it’

The whole of our scholarship – the whole of our thought – we question everything except the centrality of sexuality

“And if we cannot make our sun Stand still, yet we will make him run.”

This is a quote from Marvell, BTW.

All scholars are a bit mad. All obsessions are dangerous.

what we all hope for and at the same time fear, is some major discovery that will confirm, or disprove, or change at the least, a lifetime’s work. A lost Shakespeare play. The vanished works of Aeschylus.

‘They did go on so, don’t you think, those Victorian poets,