Top 55 Quotes by John Banville

About John Banville

These are some quotes by Irish author John Banville Novelist, who was born on December 8, 1945.

I would be far more critical than any reviewer could be of my own work. So I simply don't read them.

I would be far more critical than any reviewer could be of my own work. So I simply don't read them.

John Banville

I don't make a distinction between men and women. To me they are just people.

I don't make a distinction between men and women. To me they are just people.

John Banville

All a work of art can do is present the surface. I can't know the insides of people. I know very little about the inside of myself.

All a work of art can do is present the surface. I can't know the insides of people. I know very little about the inside of myself.

John Banville

All art at a certain level is entertainment. We go to a tragedy by Sophocles to be entertained.

All art at a certain level is entertainment. We go to a tragedy by Sophocles to be entertained.

John Banville

We think we're living in the present, but we're really living in the past.

We think we're living in the present, but we're really living in the past.

John Banville

I'm full of self-doubt. I doubt everything I do. Everything I do is a failure.

I'm full of self-doubt. I doubt everything I do. Everything I do is a failure.

John Banville

The Booker Prize is a big, popular prize for big, popular books, and that's the way it should be.

The Booker Prize is a big, popular prize for big, popular books, and that's the way it should be.

John Banville

Dostoevsky is such a bad writer it is hard to take him seriously as a novelist, though he is a wonderful philosopher.

Dostoevsky is such a bad writer it is hard to take him seriously as a novelist, though he is a wonderful philosopher.

John Banville

Why does the past seem so magical, so fraught, so luminous? At the time it was just, ugh, another boring bloody day. But, to look back on, it's a day full of miracles and light and extraordinary events. Why is this? What process do we apply to the past, to give it this vividness? I don't know.

John Banville

I always think that if you know somebody's name then there's something slightly fraudulent about that person. Otherwise we wouldn't have heard of him or her.

I always think that if you know somebody's name then there's something slightly fraudulent about that person. Otherwise we wouldn't have heard of him or her.

John Banville

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