Patrick O'Brian Quotes

The Past is such a curious Creature To look her in the Face A Transport may receipt us Or a Disgrace-.

I exist only in the past.

I'm not particularly fond of the past, but I do ramble on about it quite a bit.

Literature is always about bygone times. It's always looking back in time with a certain perspective. I look at bygone life which no longer exists, and as I said, I look at it without nostalgia but without anger, either. I look at it with criticism and with compassion. I look at it with curiosity.

I'm quite nostalgic. I like looking back over the papers and watching videos.

The past is another planet.

We move through time like a man in a rowboat, looking back even as we move forward.

The past is the place we view the present from as much as the other way around.

I write a lot about the past because I really see things clearly in hindsight.

One of the reasons for going back into the past is that it's almost the only place that there's any drama.

I was born in 1949 - which seems like a long time ago... Actually, it is a long time ago, when I think about it.

The past has infinite value if one learns from it.

We should look back now and then. Our politicians should look back every now and then.

It's hard to watch something you've done many years ago.

I watch these old films in black and white, and suddenly the door opens, and there I am. The other day, I was wearing the most awful hat.

Perhaps even these things, one day, will be pleasing to remember.

It's always refreshing to step into another time.

Well, one of the things I discovered in the course of looking back and writing about what I saw in my memory is that I was a closely observant person long before I became a reporter.

I don't connect much with the present. I have more of an affinity for what came in the past.

I find it hard to focus looking forward. So I look backward.

You've got to always go back in time if you want to move forward.

I tend to live in the past because most of my life is there.

As years passed away I have formed the habit of looking back upon that former self as upon another person, the remembrance of whose emotions has been a solace in adversity and added zest to the enjoyment of prosperity.

I look at old photos of me, and I don't feel connected to them at all.

I just find that there's something about looking back on interviews, whether for purposes of remembering what I said about something or if it's for posterity when I'm 75.