John Fowles Quotes

You never know what's going to happen, so you just continue with your head down and never expect things to start being handed to you.

You have to hold your bloody own or you're lost.

This may sound trite, but bad things happen to good people, and when you're facing terrorism, natural disaster, you can have every wonderful plan in place, but I am a realist.

There's something quite satisfying, quite reassuring about seeing a man having to survive.

I wouldn't go so far to say that destiny preserves me. I managed to survive and to succeed.

It's a cold world out there, and this world will pass you by if you give another man anything over yourself.

Nobody's going to do your life for you. You have to do it yourself, whether you're rich or poor, out of money or raking it in, the beneficiary of ridiculous fortune or terrible injustice. And you have to do it no matter what is true. No matter what is hard. No matter what unjust, sad, sucky things befall you. Self-pity is a dead-end road. You make the choice to drive down it. It's up to you to decide to stay parked there or to turn around and drive out.

There is no plan, no future laid out for any of us beyond what we make for ourselves.

It is often to the wary that the events in life are unexpected. Looser types-people who are not busy weighing and measuring every little thing-are used to accidents, coincidences, chance, things getting out of hand, things sneaking up on them. They are the happy children of life, to whom life happens for better or worse.

It's hard to plan for what comes next when what comes next is not something you planned for.

They... who await. No gifts from Chance, have conquered Fate.

Don't ask for guarantees. And don't look to be saved in any one thing, person, machine, or library. Do your own bit of saving, and if you drown, at least die knowing you were heading for shore.

Hazard has conditioned us to live in hazard. All our pleasures are dependent on it. Even though I arrange for a pleasure, and look forward to it, my eventual enjoyment of it is still a matter of hazard. Wherever time passes, there is hazard.

The world changed from having the determinism of a clock to having the contingency of a pinball machine.

Even without wars, life is dangerous.

I always knew that I would have to make it on my own somehow.

However well organized the foundations of life may be, life must always be full of risks.

There is one word in America that says it all, and that one word is, 'You never know.'

Life sometimes doesn't work out exactly as we plan or hope for.

I've lost jobs before; I've had contracts not renewed, and it didn't get me down. I didn't get upset; I just keep it moving. That has always been the case, and that will always be the case. You must look out for you.

You are the master of your own ship, pal. There are lots of people who fall into troubled waters and don't have the guts or the knowledge or the ability to make it to shore. They have nobody to blame but themselves.

Everybody's got plans... until they get hit.

I don't think my parents told me enough how the world doesn't really care about me. I think it's important to tell children that the world doesn't really care about you. You have to fight to be heard.

Everyone has to kind of fend for themselves.

I'm me, I live from film to mouth.