57+ Susanna Clarke Quotes On Writing, Perseverance And Piranesi

Susanna Clarke is a British author best known for her debut novel Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell. The novel, which was published in 2004, is a historical fantasy set in an alternate version of 19th-century England. It follows the two titular magicians as they attempt to revive English magic. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Susanna Clarke on writing, life, love.

Top 10 Susanna Clarke Quotes

1. Sing like no one is listening. Love like you’ve never been hurt. Dance like nobody’s watching, and live like it’s heaven on earth.
2. She wore a gown the color of storms, shadows, and rain and a necklace of broken promises and regrets.
3. Can a magician kill a man by magic?” Lord Wellington asked Strange. Strange frowned. He seemed to dislike the question. “I suppose a magician might,” he admitted, “but a gentleman never would.
4. I know magicians and I know magic and I say this: all magicians lie and this one more than most.
5. Well, I suppose one ought not to employ a magician and then complain that he does not behave like other people.
6. It is these black clothes," said Strange. "I am like a leftover piece of funeral, condemned to walk about the Town, frightening people into thinking of their own mortality.
7. Some years ago there was in the city of York a society of magicians. They met upon the third Wednesday of every month and read each other long, dull papers upon the history of English magic.
8. I have a scholar's love of silence and solitude. To sit and pass hour after hour in idle chatter with a roomful of strangers is to me the worst sort of torment.
9. It would need someone very remarkable to recover your name, Stephen, someone of rare perspicacity, with extraordinary talents and incomparable nobility of character. Me, in fact.
10. you must learn to live as I do - in the face of constant criticism, opposition and censure. That, sir, is the English way.

Susanna Clarke Short Quotes

• An explorer cannot stay at home reading maps other men have made.
• Drawing teaches habits of close observation that will always be useful.
• There must come a time when the bullets will run out
• To be more precise it was the color of heartache.
• All books are doors; and some of them are wardrobes.
• He smiles but rarely and watches other men to see when they laugh and then does the same.
• But, though French, she was also very brave.
• It is curious and we magicians collect curiosities, you know.
• Lovers are rarely the most rational beings in creation.
• You mean to say he became mad deliberately?' ...Nothing is more likely,' said the duke.

Susanna Clarke Quotes About Magic

He hardly ever spoke of magic, and when he did it was like a history lesson and no one could bear to listen to him. — Susanna Clarke

Magic, madam, is like wine and, if you are not used to it, it will make you drunk. — Susanna Clarke

A piece of writing is like a piece of magic. You create something out of nothing. — Susanna Clarke

Susanna Clarke Famous Quotes And Sayings

She even learnt the language of a strange country which Senior Cosetti had been told some people believed still existed, although no-one in the world could say where it was. The name of this country was Wales. — Susanna Clarke

Houses, like people, are apt to become rather eccentric if left too much on their own; this house was the architectural equivalent of an old gentleman in a worn dressing-gown and torn slippers, who got up and went to bed at odd times of day, and who kept up a continual conversation with friends no one else could see. — Susanna Clarke

He screamed. Mmm?' inquired the gentleman. I...I would never presume to interrupt you, sir. But the ground appears to be swallowing me up.' It is a bog,' said the gentleman, helpfully. It is certainly a most terrifying substance. — Susanna Clarke

What nobility of feeling! To sacrifice your own pleasure to preserve the comfort of others! It is a thing, I confess, that would never occur to me. — Susanna Clarke

This is a very grave matter, punishable by...well, I do not exactly know what, but something rather severe, I should imagine. — Susanna Clarke

He understood for the first time that the world is not dumb at all, but merely waiting for someone to speak to it in a language it understands. — Susanna Clarke

Bryon tilted his head to a very odd angle, half-closed his eyes and composed his features to suggest that he was about to expire from chronic indigestion. — Susanna Clarke

Well, Henry, you can cease frowning at me. If I am a magician, I am a very indifferent one. Other adepts summon up fairy-spirits and long-dead kings. I appear to have conjured the spirit of a banker. — Susanna Clarke

And how shall I think of you?' He considered a moment and then laughed. 'Think of me with my nose in a book! — Susanna Clarke

It is also true that his hair had a reddish tinge and, as everybody knows, no one with red hair can ever truly be said to be handsome. — Susanna Clarke

Yet it is true—skin can mean a great deal. Mine means that any man may strike me in a public place and never fear the consequences. It means that my friends do not always like to be seen with me in the street. It means that no matter how many books I read, or languages I master, I will never be anything but a curiosity—like a talking pig or a mathematical horse. — Susanna Clarke

Ha!' said the tall man drily. 'He was in high luck. Rich old uncles who die are in shockingly short supply. — Susanna Clarke

I mean that two of any thing is a most uncomfortable number. One may do as he pleases. Six may get along well enough. But two must always struggle for mastery. Two must always watch each other. The eyes of all the world will be on two, uncertain which of them to follow. — Susanna Clarke

You've got to sing like you don't need the money. You've got to love like you'll never get hurt. You've got to dance like there's nobody watching. You've got to come from the heart, if you want it to work. — Susanna Clarke

It has been remarked (by a lady infinitely cleverer than the present author) how kindly disposed the world in general feels to young people who either die or marry. — Susanna Clarke

For, though the room was silent, the silence of half a hundred cats is a peculiar thing, like fifty individual silences all piled one on top of another. — Susanna Clarke

The land is all too shallow It is painted on the sky And trembles like the wind-shook rain When the Raven King passed by — Susanna Clarke

There is nothing in the world so easy to explain as failure - it is, after all, what everybody does all the time. — Susanna Clarke

After two hours it stopped raining and in the same moment the spell broke, which Peroquet and the Admiral and Captain Jumeau knew by a curious twist of their senses, as if they had tasted a string quartet, or been, for a moment, deafened by the sight of colour blue. — Susanna Clarke

I was told once by some country people that a magician should never tell his dreams because the telling will make them come true. But I say that is great nonsense. — Susanna Clarke

Oh! And they read English novels! David! Did you ever look into an English novel? Well, do not trouble yourself. It is nothing but a lot of nonsense about girls with fanciful names getting married. — Susanna Clarke

And the name of the one shall be Fearfulness. And the name of the other shall be Arrogance... Well, clearly you are not Fearfulness, so I suppose you must be Arrogance.' This was not very polite. — Susanna Clarke

..The argument he was conducting with his neighbor as to whether the English magician had gone mad because he was a magician, or because he was English. — Susanna Clarke

Unfortunately, Childermass's French was so strongly accented by his native Yorkshire that Minervois did not understand and asked Strange if Childermass was Dutch. — Susanna Clarke

Perhaps I am too tame, too domestic a magician. But how does one work up a little madness? I meet with mad people every day in the street, but I never thought before to wonder how they got mad. Perhaps I should go wandering on lonely moors and barren shores. That is always a popular place for lunatics - in novels and plays at any rate. Perhaps wild England will make me mad. — Susanna Clarke

It was an old fashioned house --the sort of house in fact, as Strange expressed it, which a lady in a novel might like to be persecuted in. — Susanna Clarke

How is a magician to exist without books? Let someone explain that to me. It is like asking a politician to achieve high office without the benefit of bribes or patronage. — Susanna Clarke

But when the fairy sang the whole world listened to him. Stephen felt clouds pause in their passing; he felt sleeping hills shift and murmur; he felt cold mists dance. He understood for the first time that the world is not dumb at all, but merely waiting for someone to speak to it in a language it understands. In the fairy’s song the earth recognized the names by which it called itself. — Susanna Clarke

He gave her his heart. She took it and placed it quietly in the pocket of her gown. No one observed what she did. — Susanna Clarke

Such nonsense!" declared Dr Greysteel. "Whoever heard of cats doing anything useful!" "Except for staring at one in a supercilious manner," said Strange. "That has a sort of moral usefulness, I suppose, in making one feel uncomfortable and encouraging sober reflection upon one's imperfections. — Susanna Clarke

The governess was not much liked in the village. She was too tall, too fond of books, too grave, and, a curious thing, never smiled unless there was something to smile at. — Susanna Clarke

Mr. Robinson was a polished sort of person. He was so clean and healthy and pleased about everything that he positively shone - which is only to be expected in a fairy or an angel, but is somewhat disconcerting in an attorney. — Susanna Clarke

Time and I have quarrelled. All hours are midnight now. I had a clock and a watch, but I destroyed them both. I could not bear the way they mocked me. — Susanna Clarke

How quickly was every bad thing discovered to be the fault of the previous administration (an evil set of men who wedded general stupidity to wickedness of purpose). — Susanna Clarke

Life Lessons by Susanna Clarke

1. Susanna Clarke's work demonstrates the power of imaginative storytelling, showing us that even the most fantastical stories can be rooted in reality.
2. Her novels often explore themes of identity and belonging, reminding us that our lives are shaped by the stories we tell ourselves.
3. Clarke's work also encourages us to be open to new perspectives and to look beyond our own experiences, showing us the importance of empathy and understanding.