Jane Austen Quotes

“[Jane Austen] knew that it was better to remain a spinster, with a limited income and no permanent home, than to marry without the deepest emotional attachment.”
― Fiona Stafford, Jane Austen: A Brief Life

“Anything can provide the materials for a new story, as long as the onlooker has a mind to create.”
― Fiona Stafford, Jane Austen: A Brief Life

“Everything Jane Austen read came alive, but, at the same time, her natural empathy with those she encountered through her reading was kept in check by a keen sense of the ridiculous and of the potential absurdity of emotional display.”
― Fiona Stafford, Jane Austen: A Brief Life

“As her writing developed, Jane Austen recognised that there were different ways of creating original works of art and that the skills acquired from experience and experimentation were ultimately as important as the initial sparks of inspiration.”
― Fiona Stafford, Jane Austen: A Brief Life

“Of all writers, [Jane Austen] is the most adept at creating both characters who seem to possess an independent existence and a narrator to whom readers feel able to turn, as if to an intimate friend.”
― Fiona Stafford, Jane Austen: A Brief Life

“Among siblings, deep affection and aggravation generally go hand in hand.”
― Fiona Stafford, Jane Austen: A Brief Life