A good heavy book holds you down. It’s an anchor that keeps you from getting up and having another gin and tonic.
John Lanchester – The Debt to Pleasure
Book as Anchor
B
Unreliable Memory
U
Memory, I realize, can be an unreliable thing; often it is heavily coloured by the circumstances in which one remembers…
John Lanchester – The Debt to Pleasure
Solo Travel Merits
S
There is a great deal to be said for traveling alone, and undistracted, in the pursuit of knowledge.
John Lanchester – The Debt to Pleasure
Luxury vs Chocolate
L
It is impossible to overdo luxury. French proverb. No, it is impossible to overdo chocolate.
John Lanchester – The Debt to Pleasure
Life Becomes Literature
L
I had as yet no notion that life every now and then becomes literature not for long, of course, but long enough to be what we best remember.
John Lanchester – The Debt to Pleasure
Food and Love Link
F
People who do not love food are always the same people who ‘can take or leave’ love itself.
John Lanchester – The Debt to Pleasure
Old Age Consolation
O
One of the consolations of old age is the complete shedding of the illusion that you might be any different from how you are.
John Lanchester – The Debt to Pleasure
Language Like Poppies
L
Language is like poppies. It just takes something to churn the earth round them up, and when it does up come the sleeping words, bright red, fresh, blowing about.
John Lanchester – The Debt to Pleasure
No Bad Food
N
There is no such thing as bad food, only bad chefs.
John Lanchester – The Debt to Pleasure
Era of Perfectibility
E
The defining characteristic of the modern era is perfectibility, the belief that everything can be infinitely improved.
John Lanchester – The Debt to Pleasure