Bowen

Famous quotes containing the word bowen:

    The novelist’s—any writer’s—object is to whittle down his meaning to the exactest and finest possible point. What, of course, is fatal is when he does not know what he does mean: he has no point to sharpen.
    —Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)

    Ghosts, we hope, may be always with us—that is, never too far out of the reach of fancy. On the whole, it would seem they adapt themselves well, perhaps better than we do, to changing world conditions—they enlarge their domain, shift their hold on our nerves, and, dispossessed of one habitat, set up house in another. The universal battiness of our century looks like providing them with a propitious climate ...
    —Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)

    Almost everybody wore a curious limpidity of expression, like newborn babies or souls just after death. Dazed but curiously dignified.... after a crise ... of hysterical revulsion and tiredness, I passed beyond ... and became entered by a rather sublime feeling.
    —Elizabeth Bowen (1899–1973)