William Boyd quotes

William Boyd is a British novelist and screenwriter, acclaimed for his sophisticated storytelling and distinctive style. His works span genres such as historical fiction, espionage, and satire, earning him numerous literary awards. He is also known for adapting his own novels for film and television. Here are 36 of his quotes:

When you experience bereavement at a youngish age, you suddenly realise that life is unjust and unfair, that bad things will happen, and you have to take that on board. (William Boyd)
I don't think they'll ever make a retro Bond. View quote
William Boyd
We never love anyone. Not really. We only love our idea of another person. It is some conception of our own that we love. We love ourselves, in fact. View quote
William Boyd
It's true: lives do drift apart for no obvious reason. We're all busy people, we can't spend our time simply trying to stay in touch. The test of a friendship is if it can weather these inevitable gaps. View quote
William Boyd
I have to start my real life soon, before I die of boredom and frustration. View quote
William Boyd
With film, you have very limited tools to convey subjectivity - voiceover, the camera's point of view, good acting - but even the very best actor in the world is crude by comparison with what you can do in a written paragraph. View quote
William Boyd
As a novelist, where do you go to tap into memories, and impressions, and sensations? It's usually, in my experience, your early life, before you started thinking of yourself as a writer, because somehow those experiences are unadulterated. View quote
William Boyd
The last thing you know about yourself is your effect. View quote
William Boyd
I have this lock of hair that keeps falling across my forehead. It drives me mad. View quote
William Boyd
In the broad spectrum of the arts, two worlds rarely overlap - the literary world and the world of rock music. View quote
William Boyd
I tend to admire dead people more than the living. All too often, human reality diminishes the glowing reputation. (William Boyd)
Do we change every time we have a new encounter? Are we endlessly mutable? I think these are fascinating questions: it's a rich vein to tap, and I don't think I have exhausted it fully yet. View quote
William Boyd
My novels are often about people who are in love or attracted to each other. View quote
William Boyd
In some ways, you could argue, television is doing far more interesting work than the movies. It's more fulfilling. View quote
William Boyd
To live as an artist requires hard work or some extraordinary good fortune to come your way. View quote
William Boyd
I know many older writers who were very successful and whose books are now out of print, so you have to go to antiquarian booksellers to buy their fifth or eighth novel or whatever it is. View quote
William Boyd
There is a disconnect between the film Bond and the literary Bond which is their contemporaneity. I don't suffer from that. View quote
William Boyd
Film is a medium of clear lines and broad strikes - which can be fantastic - but compared to the subtleties and nuances of a novel, it doesn't even get close. View quote
William Boyd
I can bore for England on the subject of James Bond. But I knew I couldn't do it frivolously; I had to take it very seriously, however much fun I was having. And I had to make myself, you know, absolutely steeped in Bond and in Fleming and that world. View quote
William Boyd
I have always thought if you are going to make a film, it's much better to have an original script that will play to film's strengths. View quote
William Boyd
What's important to me is that all of my books are in print - and, in a way, that becomes the challenge, not winning this prize or getting that review. It's that the work is there, and you can walk into many bookshops throughout the world and buy it. (William Boyd)
Human beings are interested in the human condition. View quote
William Boyd
At a time when there's younger writers starting up and it's inevitable that you're becoming less fashionable, at a time when the industrial pressures apply more and more to books, how do you keep a book you wrote 28 years ago selling well year on year? Because it really is getting harder. View quote
William Boyd
There's a sense in all my novels that nothing is certain. View quote
William Boyd
I let people off the hook too easily. View quote
William Boyd