English novelist (1922-1986)
Writing's not always a pleasure to me, but if I'm not writing every other pleasure loses its savour.
JOHN BRAINE
Becoming a Writer
The only way to save money is not to spend it.
JOHN BRAINE
The Jealous God
I've no desire to be ill-dressed; but I hate the feeling that I daren't be ill-dressed if I want to.
JOHN BRAINE
Room at the Top
And though I'm happy now sitting in Hampstead High Street in the sunshine, the happiness of the memory is a different kind of happiness, the happiness of youth, the happiness of an infinite amount of possibilities.
JOHN BRAINE
These Golden Days
"Older men are much more attractive than young boys," Petronella said. "You're trying to cheer me up. Older men are more attractive because they have more money."
JOHN BRAINE
The View from Tower Hill
And what I'm conscious of now is of being part of a family. We don't have to explain anything to each other, we understand without words. And I am noting now, amidst my grief, that the men are sipping whisky and the women are sipping sherry.
JOHN BRAINE
These Golden Days
But the measuring up came first, not the love--don't marry for money, but marry where money is. Did men think like this? No, they didn't. They fell in love; then imagined that because they were in love, the girl would automatically measure up to their requirements too. They couldn't really love someone just as they were. And then when they found out that they hadn't got the person they had wanted--which was little wonder, since she'd never existed--the trouble started.
JOHN BRAINE
The View from Tower Hill
To be shockingly original with your first novel, you don't have to discover a new technique: Simply write about people as they are and not as the predominantly liberal and humanist literary establishment believes that they ought to be.
JOHN BRAINE
Writing a Novel
It's very quiet but I'm aware that life is going on outside.
JOHN BRAINE
These Golden Days
Marriage is the normal way of life. We must hold fast to our connections with life as the majority live it. Our covers must be much more than disguises. False whiskers and grease-paint that's not good enough.
JOHN BRAINE
Finger of Fire
If the original of any of your characters would win a libel case against you, you have failed to create a real character.
JOHN BRAINE
Writing a Novel
Being a writer in a library is rather like being a eunuch in a harem.
JOHN BRAINE
New York Times, October 7, 1962
Images of pain and distress, more memories of things I'd seen during the war and would rather have forgotten, rose to the surface of my mind. As long as I kept on walking they'd remain mixed and chaotic, like imperfectly recollected books and films; once I stopped they'd become unbearably organised.
JOHN BRAINE
Room at the Top
Marriage is very nice but there's nothing so wonderful about it. One little golden casket's very like another.
JOHN BRAINE
The Jealous God
Love is for everybody.
JOHN BRAINE
The View from Tower Hill