A novelist should not be too intelligent either, although... he may be permitted to be an intellectual.
Anthony Burgess

Americans will listen, but they do not care to read. War and Peace must wait for the leisure of retirement, which never really comes: meanwhile it helps to furnish the living room.
Anthony Burgess

Bath twice a day to be really clean, once a day to be passably clean, once a week to avoid being a public menace.
Anthony Burgess

Books in a large university library system: 2,000,000. Books in an average large city library: 10,000. Average number of books in a chain bookstore: 30,000. Books in an average neighborhood branch library: 20,000.
Anthony Burgess

Every dogma has its day.
Anthony Burgess

He said it was artificial respiration, but now I find I am to have his child.
Anthony Burgess

I didn't think; I experimented.
Anthony Burgess

If you believe in an unseen Christ, you will believe in the unseen Christlike potential of others.
Anthony Burgess

It's always good to remember where you come from and celebrate it. To remember where you come from is part of where you're going.
Anthony Burgess

Laugh and the world laughs with you, snore and you sleep alone.
Anthony Burgess


Life is a wretched gray Saturday, but it has to be lived through.
Anthony Burgess

One of the delights known to age, and beyond the grasp of youth, is that of Not Going.
Anthony Burgess

Readers are plentiful: thinkers are rare.
Anthony Burgess

The country needs and, unless I mistake its temper, the country demands bold, persistent, experimentation. It is common sense to take a method and try it, if it fails, admit it frankly and try another. But above all, try something.
Anthony Burgess

The downtrodden are the great creators of slang.
Anthony Burgess

The possession of a book becomes a substitute for reading it.
Anthony Burgess

The unconscious mind has a habit of asserting itself in the afternoon.
Anthony Burgess

To write is to become disinterested. There is a certain renunciation in art.
Anthony Burgess

Violence among young people is an aspect of their desire to create. They don't know how to use their energy creatively so they do the opposite and destroy.
Anthony Burgess

We all need money, but there are degrees of desperation.
Anthony Burgess