Malcolm Bradbury quotes

" Only the old are innocent. That is what the Victorians understood, and the Christians. Original sin is a property of the young. The old grow beyond corruption very quickly. " # Innocence # Christians and Christianity # Sin

" If God had been a liberal, we wouldn't have had the Ten Commandments -- we'd have the Ten Suggestions. " # Liberals # God # Resignation

" The English are polite by telling lies. The Americans are polite by telling the truth. " # Manners # Politicians and Politics # America

" I like the English. They have the most rigid code of immorality in the world. " # Nations # Morality # Language

" A conventional good read is usually a bad read, a relaxing bath in what we know already. A true good read is surely an act of innovative creation in which we, the readers, become conspirators. " # Books - Reading # Writers and Writing # Innovation

" To you liberals, of course, goats are just sheep from broken homes. " # Liberals

" In Slaka, sex is just politics with the clothes off. " # Politicians and Politics

" The better class of Briton likes to send his children away to school until they're old and intelligent enough to come home again. Then they're too old and intelligent to want to. " # Children

" Genitals are a great distraction to scholarship. " # Scholars and Scholarship

" It had always seemed to Louis that a fundamental desire to take postal courses was being sublimated by other people into sexual activity. " # Government