Anthony Powell

Anthony Dymoke Powell CH CBE (21 December 1905 – 28 March 2000) was one of the most respected English novelists of his time. He is probably best known for his twelve-volume novel sequence A Dance to the Music of Time.

Anthony Powell with Violet on their wedding day in 1934

Quotes

• The whole idea of interviews is in itself absurd – one cannot answer deep questions about what one's life was like – one writes novels about it.
  • The Times, May 15, 1986.

A Dance to the Music of Time (1951-1975)

• Parents – especially step-parents – are sometimes a bit of a disappointment to their children. They don't fufill the promise of their early years.
  • A Buyer's Market (1952), ch. 2.

• He fell in love with himself at first sight and it is a passion to which he has always remained faithful.
  • The Acceptance World (1955), ch. 1.

• Self-love seems so often unrequited.
  • The Acceptance World (1955), ch. 1.

• [T]here is no greater sign of innate misery than a love of teasing.
  • At Lady Molly's (1957), ch. 1.

• Growing old's like being increasingly penalized for a crime you haven't committed.
  • Temporary Kings (1973), ch. 1.

• People think because a novel's invented, it isn't true. Exactly the reverse is the case. Because a novel's invented, it is true. Biography and memoirs can never be wholly true, since they can't include every conceivable circumstance of what happened. The novel can do that. The novelist himself lays it down. His decision is binding.
  • Hearing Secret Harmonies (1975), ch. 3.