And I saw her as a sad thirtieth child of Valentine that fell, not as Lucifer rebelling against God, but because she too passionately wanted to be united with him! All things in excess become sin.

— Lawrence Durrell

An idea is like a rare bird which cannot be seen. What one sees is the trembling of the branch it has just left.

— Lawrence Durrell

Art like life is an open secret.

— Lawrence Durrell

Art—the meaning of the pattern of our common actions in reality. The cloth-of-gold that hides behind the sackcloth of reality, forced out by the pain of human memory.

— Lawrence Durrell

Bessie was News, Leaders, and Gossip; Enid was Features, Make-up and general Sub. Whenever they were at a loss for copy they would mercilessly pillage ancient copies of Punch or Home Chat. An occasional hole in the copy was filled with a ghoulish smudge - local block-making had clearly indicated that somewhere a poker-work fanatic had gone quietly out of his mind. In this way the Central Balkan Herald was made up every morning and then delivered to the composition room where the chain-gang quickly reduced it to gibberish. MINISTER FINED FOR KISSING IN PUBLIC. WEDDING BULLS RING OUT FOR PRINCESS. QUEEN OF HOLLAND GIVES PANTY FOR EX-SERVICE MEN. MORE DOGS HAVE BABIES THIS SUMMER IN BELGRADE. BRITAIN NEW FLYING-GOAT.

— Lawrence Durrell

Doesn't everything depend on our interpretation of the surrounding silence?

— Lawrence Durrell

Each of our five senses contains an art.

— Lawrence Durrell

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 do the ordinary people, but to fulfill it in its true potential - the imagination.

— Lawrence Durrell

History is an endless repetition of the wrong way of living.

— Lawrence Durrell

... history - the lamp which illumines national character...

— Lawrence Durrell