Inspirational Quotes by Lawrence Durrell (English Author, Poet)

Lawrence George Durrell (1912–90) was a British expatriate author known for his versatility as a novelist, poet, dramatist, and author of topographical books. His most renowned work is the sequence of four interconnected novels collectively known as ‘The Alexandria Quartet.’

Born in Jalandhar, Punjab, British India, Durrell eschewed formal education but embraced his passion for writing from a young age, publishing Quaint Fragment (1931.) During World War II, he served as a press attaché to the British embassies in Cairo and Alexandria. Post-war, he explored various locales, including Yugoslavia, Rhodes, Cyprus, and the south of France.

Durrell’s magnum opus, the ‘Alexandria Quartet,’ consisting of Justine (1957,) Balthazar (1958,) Mountolive (1958,) and Clea (1960,) is set against the backdrop of wartime Egypt. This tetralogy showcased his narrative prowess and experimental prose. Other notable contributions to fiction include The Black Book (1938) and The Dark Labyrinth (1947.) Durrell further explored the Mediterranean world with the ‘Avignon Quintet,’ beginning with Monsieur (1974) and concluding with Constance (1982.)

Beyond fiction, Durrell’s talents extended to travel writing, with noteworthy works like Prospero’s Cell (1945,) Reflections on a Marine Venus (1953,) and Bitter Lemons (1957,) where he vividly described Corfu, Rhodes, and Cyprus, places he had lived. His final book, Caesar’s Vast Ghost: Aspects of Provence, (1990.)

More: Wikipedia • READ: Works by Lawrence Durrell

Music was invented to confirm human loneliness.
—Lawrence Durrell
Topics: Music

It is not love that is blind, but jealousy.
—Lawrence Durrell
Topics: Jealousy

Everyone loathes his own country and countrymen if he is any sort of artist.
—Lawrence Durrell
Topics: Patriotism

The richest love is that which submits to the arbitration of time.
—Lawrence Durrell
Topics: Love

The appalling thing is the degree of charity women are capable of. You see it all the time… love lavished on absolute fools. Love’s a charity ward, you know.
—Lawrence Durrell
Topics: Charity

Music is only love looking for words.
—Lawrence Durrell
Topics: Words, Music

It’s only with great vulgarity that you can achieve real refinement, only out of bawdy that you can get tenderness.
—Lawrence Durrell
Topics: Vulgarity, Swearing, Profanity

There are only three things to be done with a woman. You can love her, suffer for her, or turn her into literature.
—Lawrence Durrell
Topics: Women

A woman’s best love letters are always written to the man she is betraying.
—Lawrence Durrell
Topics: Letters

Now stiff on a pillar with a phallic air nelson stylites in Trafalgar square reminds the British what once they were.
—Lawrence Durrell
Topics: Heroes/Heroism, Heroes, Heroism

For us artists there waits the joyous compromise through art with all that wounded or defeated us in daily life; in this way, not to evade destiny, as the ordinary people try to do, but to fulfil it in its true potential—the imagination.
—Lawrence Durrell
Topics: Artists, Art, Arts

It’s unthinkable not to love—you’d have a severe nervous breakdown. Or you’d have to be Philip Larkin.
—Lawrence Durrell
Topics: Love

Old age is an insult. It’s like being smacked.
—Lawrence Durrell
Topics: Age, Aging

Truth disappears with the telling of it.
—Lawrence Durrell
Topics: Truth

Journeys, like artists, are born and not made. A thousand differing circumstances contribute to them, few of them willed or determined by the will—whatever we may think.
—Lawrence Durrell
Topics: Travel, Chance, Tourism

No one can go on being a rebel too long without turning into an autocrat.
—Lawrence Durrell
Topics: Revolution

I’m trying to die correctly, but it’s very difficult, you know.
—Lawrence Durrell
Topics: Death, Dying

Our inventions mirror our secret wishes.
—Lawrence Durrell
Topics: One liners, Wishes

Travel can be one of the most rewarding forms of introspection.
—Lawrence Durrell
Topics: Travel

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Inspirational Quotes by Lawrence Durrell (English Author, Poet)

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