Anthony Burgess Quotes

Nothing is so good as it seems beforehand.

You expect certain things. You build up in your mind how it's supposed to go down. When you get a record deal, you think you're supposed to get X, Y, and Z. It doesn't happen like that. You're like 'Oh, this isn't as exciting as I thought it was going to be.'

Life is never quite like the brochure.

I always see those of whom I have heard well with a slight disappointment. They are so much better than the great herd, and yet the heavens are not shivered into diamonds over their heads.

I think it's kind of strange when people talk about how hyped-up the movie is. It almost sets you up for a bigger fall.

Expectations are resentment waiting to happen.

We're wired to expect the world to be brighter and more meaningful and more obviously interesting than it actually is. And when we realize that it isn't, we start looking around for the real world.

Life is not what you expected it to be.

I think we all have experiences when we were young where we either had an interaction with someone we admired or you know, had a vision of how they were and found out that they weren't necessarily that and that it tends to be a big let down sometimes.

It just wasn't the fairy tale I had hoped for.

I don't think that I want to meet any of the icons. I don't think that anybody can quite live up to your expectations.

I know what it's like to meet someone you admire and have them be a complete jerk.

Nothing seems to come up to your expectations. But nothing I had heard about Hollywood was enough.

As a general rule, people disappoint you as you know them.

Life is so constructed, that the event does not, cannot, will not, match the expectation.

What happens when your dream comes true - when the spotlight is on and then it moves away?

I don't think any of us grew up into the world we were hoping for or expecting.

Never idealize others. They will never live up to your expectations.

Life isn't what it's like in the movies.

Fame was not at all what it was cracked up to be, as far as I was concerned.

Seeing my parents makes me realise that life is not a fairy tale.

A lot of kids get disappointed. They expect me to be, like, 'Bwaah.' 'If I spend a minute with them, they end up saying, 'Wow, you're a nice, normal guy.' They hate it when they catch me out of my makeup.

I thought everything would be different in America. It wasn't.

I'm not by nature a cynical person. But sometimes your expectations are different from reality.

Things aren't always the fairy tale that you thought they were.