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Authors:

Barbara Pym quotes

English Novelist June 2, 1913 – January 11, 1980

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Quotes

But of course, she remembered, that was why women were so wonderful; it was their love and imagination that transformed these unremarkable beings. For most men, when one came to think of it, were undistinguished to look at, if not positively ugly. Fabian was an exception, and perhaps love affairs with handsome men tended to be less stable because so much less sympathy and imagination were needed on the woman's part? Barbara Pym
Barbara Pym quote: "I love Evensong. There's something sad and essentially..."
I love Evensong. There's something sad and essentially English about it. Barbara Pym
Prue hadn't really been in love with Fabian. Indeed, it was obvious that at times she found him both boring and irritating. But wasn't that what so many marriages were - finding a person boring and irritating and yet loving him? Who could imagine a man who was never boring, or irritating? Barbara Pym
I realised that one might love him secretly with no hope of encouragement, which can be very enjoyable for the young or inexperienced. Barbara Pym
Oh the benison of it, she thought, for she seemed to need comfort now, not only because she was tired after the journey and far away from John, but because she had admitted to herself that she loved him, had let her love sweep over her like a kind of illness, 'giving in' to flu, conscious only of the present moment. Barbara Pym
Oh, but it was splendid the things women were doing for men all the time, thought Jane. Making them feel, perhaps sometimes by no more than a casual glance, that they were loved and admired and desired when they were worthy of none of these things - enabling them to preen themselves and puff out their plumage like birds and bask in the sunshine of love, real or imagined, it didn't matter which. Barbara Pym
I wonder if he kissed her, Jane thought. She was surprised to hear that they had had what seemed to be quite an intelligent conversation, for she had never found Fabian very much good in that line. She had a theory that this was why he tended to make love to woman - because he couldn't really think of much to say to them. Barbara Pym
As for his sudden change of heart, he had suddenly remembered the end of Mansfield Park, and how Edmund fell out of love with Mary Crawford and came to care for Fanny. Dulcie must surely know the novel well, and would understand how such things can happen. Barbara Pym
The small things of life were often so much bigger than the great things . . . the trivial pleasure like cooking, one's home, little poems especially sad ones, solitary walks, funny things seen and overheard. Barbara Pym
Jane felt that he would write from the depths of a wretchedness that would not necessarily be insincere because its outward signs were so theatrical. Pesumably attractive men and probably woman too must always be suffering in this way; they must so often have to reject and cast aside love, and perhaps even practice did not always make them ruthless and cold-blooded enough to do it without feeling any qualms. Barbara Pym
Barbara Pym quote: "One wouldn't believe there could be so many people, and one..."
One wouldn't believe there could be so many people, and one must love them all. Barbara Pym
For although she had been, and still was, very much admired, she had got into the way of preferring unsatisfactory love affairs to any others, so that it was becoming almost a bad habit. Barbara Pym
Barbara Pym quote: "Perhaps all love had something of the ridiculous in it."
Perhaps all love had something of the ridiculous in it. Barbara Pym
Barbara Pym quote: "How absurd and delicious it is to be in love with somebody..."
How absurd and delicious it is to be in love with somebody younger than yourself. Everybody should try it. Barbara Pym
How displaced is the sympathy lavished on adolescents. There is a yet more difficult age which comes later, when one has less to hope for and less ability to change, when one has cast the die and has to settle into a chosen life without the consolations of habit or the wisdom of maturity. Barbara Pym

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