John Robert Fowles was an English novelist of international stature. Having lived a conventional family life as an oppressively conformist in early 1930s, Fowles wanted to escape from the English suburb culture. During World War II, he served as a lieutenant in the Royal Marines for 2 years. He desperately wanted to participate in the war, but it ended before he could go into combat. After completing his education from the Oxford University, he taught English at the University of Poiters. Thereafter, he transferred to Anorgyrios College at Spetsai in Greece. He was inspired to write 'The Magus' that described the experimental philosophy and hippie anarchism of the 1960s. It instantly turned into a bestseller. This was followed by impressive fiction and non-fiction works including 'The Ebony Tower', 'A Maggot', 'Mantissa' and 'Daniel Martin'. As an author, he was influenced by Camus and Sartre and was critically positioned between postmodernism and modernism era. In 1966, he imagined a beautiful woman dressed in black Victorian attire, standing on the dock and staring out at the sea. He became obsessed with the idea that led him to write 'The French Lieutenant's Woman' (1969). The Times included Fowles on the list of '50 greatest British authors' since 1945. Fowles was a man of wisdom, which is evident through his quotes that have come up through his characters and his own life. We have curated some of his best quotes from his writings, books, essays and speeches. A selection of John Robert Fowles quotes about human life, love, poetry, passion, marriage, women, men, war and much more.
To write poetry and to commit suicide, apparently so contradictory, had really been the same, attempts at escape.
John Fowles
I think we are just insects, we live a bit and then die and that’s the lot. There’s no mercy in things. There’s not even a Great Beyond. There’s nothing.
If you forget everything else about me, please remember this. I walked down that street and I never looked back and I love you. I love you. I love you so much that I shall hate you for ever for today.
I just think of things as beautiful or not. Can't you understand? I don't think of good or bad. Just of beautiful or ugly. I think a lot of nice things are ugly and a lot of nasty things are beautiful.
It is not only species of animal that die out, but whole species of feeling. And if you are wise you will never pity the past for what it did not know, but pity yourself for what it did.
You must make, always. You must act, if you believe something. Talking about acting is like boasting about pictures you're going to paint. The most terrible bad form.
