Author Birthday – 7 October – Clive James

Clive James was born on 7 October 1939 and died on 24 November 2019.

Clive James Quotes

1. People don’t get their morality from their reading matter: they bring their morality to it.
2. It often happens that we are most touched by what we are least capable of. Evanescent delicacy is not the quality in the arts that I admire most, but it is often the characteristic by which I am most reduced to envy.
3. All I can do is turn a phrase until it catches the light.
4. A painter can leave you with nothing left to say. A writer leaves you with everything to say.
5. The sure sign of a weak man who ascends to glory is that he can’t tolerate having strong men around him.
6. Most first novels are disguised autobiographies. This autobiography is a disguised novel.
7. Common sense and a sense of humour are the same thing, moving at different speeds. A sense of humour is just common sense, dancing. Those who lack humour are without judgement and should be trusted with nothing.

Clive James was an Australian author. As well as essays, he published collections of literary and television criticism, travel writing, poetry, and novels, plus five volumes of autobiography, Unreliable Memoirs, Falling Towards England, and The Blaze of Obscurity. In 2012 he was appointed CBE and in 2013 an Officer of the Order of Australia. His most recent poetry collection, Angels Over Elsinore, was shortlisted for the 2009 Costa Prize for Poetry. His strongest recurring themes were those of identity, culture, language, memory, and mortality.

Source for image: Author’s Website
Source for Quotes

by Amanda Patterson
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