Etienne Lombard > Etienne's Quotes

“When it's gone, you'll know what a gift love was. You'll suffer like this. So go back and fight to keep it.”
― Ian McEwan, Enduring Love

“A person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn and not easily mended.”
― Ian McEwan, Atonement

“It wasn't only wickedness and scheming that made people unhappy, it was confusion and misunderstanding; above all, it was the failure to grasp the simple truth that other people are as real as you.”
― Ian McEwan, Atonement

“Só was haar ma. Spits altyd die ore. In die gesin word gesê: Ore is Ma se primêre organe. Haar hart sal al staan, dan luister sy nog. Haar pa se speelse waarskuwing: “Ma gaan ons nog eendag uit die graf afluister!”
― Etienne van Heerden, Die biblioteek aan die einde van die wêreld

“Those are the three keys: the want and the opposition to the want need to be important, necessary, and urgent. The result should be the kind of conflict that interests readers.”
― Sol Stein, Stein On Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies

“Anders gestel, Ian: Wat is die afsnypunt van historiese skuld? Uit hoe ver terug mag ons die wandade van voorgeslagte byroep om die huidige geslag mee te blameer? “Ek”
― Etienne van Heerden, Die biblioteek aan die einde van die wêreld

“As ek jy is, Ian, bly ek hier en geniet die son en die see en die goedkoop arbeid, maar emigreer ekonomies oorsee. “Vat”
― Etienne van Heerden, Die biblioteek aan die einde van die wêreld

“háár beweging, wat stry daarteen dat die Weste die sentrum vorm vir Afrika se denke?”
― Etienne van Heerden, Die biblioteek aan die einde van die wêreld

“All of these early exposures to offstage happenings contribute to the belief that stories are told. They can be a liability to writers later in life because the writer has to change his mind-set from telling what happened somewhere else to creating an experience for the reader by showing what happened. Twentieth”
― Sol Stein, Stein On Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies

“Elizabeth kyk meewarig na hom. “Ons het nie ’n hede in hierdie land nie, Ian. “Ons het net ’n onafgehandelde verlede. En dáárvan is jy die beste voorbeeld wat ek ken.”
― Etienne van Heerden, Die biblioteek aan die einde van die wêreld

“Dis tog presies waarteen Biko en Fanon en wie ook al protesteer. Jy moet eers ’n klein Engelsmannetjie word voordat jy burger van die moderne wêreld mag wees? “Wat”
― Etienne van Heerden, Die biblioteek aan die einde van die wêreld

“Hoekom weet niemand nie dat Afrikaans as taal Suid-Afrika se eerste anti-koloniale verset was nie? Eers teen die taal Hollands en toe teen die Engelse taal. “Julle”
― Etienne van Heerden, Die biblioteek aan die einde van die wêreld

“Laat die teks koud word. Die ou advies wat Elizabeth aan haar skrywers gee. Laat die teks afkoel, kry afstand, bekyk dit dan weer.”
― Etienne van Heerden, Die biblioteek aan die einde van die wêreld

“What I have never witnessed is a writer’s work succeeding notably in a field he doesn’t habitually read for pleasure.”
― Sol Stein, Stein On Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies

“Diction involves the choice of words for their precise meaning and sound, the arrangement of those words, and their selection for effect.”
― Sol Stein, Stein On Writing: A Master Editor of Some of the Most Successful Writers of Our Century Shares His Craft Techniques and Strategies

“Guilt is the most merciless disease of man. It stains all the other areas of living. It darkens all skies.”
― John D. MacDonald, The Dreadful Lemon Sky

“was a routine, now, and one should never underestimate the importance of routine in a person’s life: routine allowed everything else to seem more exciting and impromptu.”
― William Boyd, Ordinary Thunderstorms

“When I occasionally begin to worry about how much wine I drink each day I console myself – or excuse myself – with the thought that I drink wine like a French person. It seems to me almost sinful to sit down to eat food without a glass of wine. And how does one signal the end of the working day without opening a bottle?”
― William Boyd, Bamboo

“When he quoted Voltaire’s dictum that ‘the history of the human mind is the history of stupidity’, he meant it from the bottom of his heart.”
― William Boyd, Bamboo

“in the newspapers. It was Churchill who coined the phrase ‘in war the truth is so important that it must be protected by a bodyguard of lies’.”
― William Boyd, Bamboo

“Nicolson described the great aviator thus: ‘he is and always will be not only a schoolboy hero, but a schoolboy.’ It explains a great deal.”
― William Boyd, Bamboo

“How soon “not now” becomes “never”.”
― Douglas Kennedy, The Moment

“Compartmentalize. Accept the Cartesian logic of two separate universes within one life. Accept the contradictory tug between familial responsibility and the illusion of freedom. Accept that – as Dumas said – the chains of marriage are heavy and, as such, they often need to be carried by several people. But never allow the two realms to meet – and never admit anything. Whereas you, Harry, confessed everything … didn’t you?”
― Douglas Kennedy, The Woman In The Fifth

“Because I was educated in the idea that fear or anxiety was something you didn’t share with those nearest and dearest to you. As my dad used to tell me: Never let anyone know if you’re about to shit in your pants.”
― Douglas Kennedy, The Job

“explained: “It happened, but only in the mind of the writer. And, of course, in your mind, too. That’s what a novel is. The exchange of dreams.”
― James A. Michener, The Novel: A Novel

“When I was in the United States I had the mournful feeling that eighty percent of your people would welcome a Spartan dictatorship if it promised to improve the schools, discipline the minorities, put women back in their place, install a religious supremacy and terminate the silliness of the Bill of Rights. Many modern Americans would leap at such an offer, it seemed to me, which is why I wanted you to see Sparta. Because what you see here is what such a choice always leads”
― James A. Michener, The Novel: A Novel

“Damn, you know books and sports on television. You’re a triple threat.” “Those are the sorts of things that keep you alive when you pass seventy.” In mild”
― James A. Michener, The Novel: A Novel

“The secret of good government is to let men alone.”
― Nicholas Monsarrat, The White Rajah

“What is the use of living if you cannot eat cheese and pickles?”
― Ben MacIntyre, Operation Mincemeat: How a Dead Man and a Bizarre Plan Fooled the Nazis and Assured an Allied Victory

“It’s sometimes said that World War II was won with British intelligence, American steel, and Soviet blood. This sweeping”
― Kate Quinn, The Diamond Eye