Alan Furst Quotes

Paris is the fountain-head of European civilisation, as Gomukhi is of the Ganga.

The arts are very alive in Ireland, so that had its influence on me. But I consider myself European, really.

What is the thread of western civilization that distinguished its course in history? It has to do with the preoccupation of western man with his outward command and his sense of superiority.

When I'm doing a store in a country, I always like to consider the concept of the country and the city. Ask what are the clothes of the city, what does this city represent for me?

If I had been born in Paris in the early 1900s and lived through World War II, I feel like my DNA would've been Henri Baurel.

As a New Yorker you can't help but be proud of the fact that so much music and culture started here. Punk rock, jazz, hip-hop and house music started here, George Gershwin debuted 'Rhapsody in Blue' here; the Velvet Underground are from New York.

When people say that L.A. doesn't have a culture, I think it really does: a very old culture, and very specific. There's streets named after entertainers, and statues of entertainers, and it's great. Entertainment is still art, even if it makes billions of dollars. So it's like a city built on entertainment, and art in a way.

Well, I think, you know, the arts are really what - one of the things that make this country strong. We always think it's our economy or our military power, but in fact, I think it's our culture, our civilization, our ideas, our creativity.

Happiness is a new idea in Europe.

I grew up watching American films, listening to American music, and it's a big contribution to the rest of the world. I mean, American jazz, for me, is the best thing culturally that America has produced.

Shiraz' is an important part of our filmmaking and cultural history.

Paris was a museum displaying exactly itself.

The impact of black music and black art forms on American culture is really difficult to appreciate.

The Louvre is the book in which we learn to read.

Paris is a mighty schoolmaster, a grand enlightener of the provincial intellect.

I'm on the record as saying things like I think it's important for people to understand their Bible stories, not because I'm an advocate of religion - clearly, I'm not - but once again, what comes from the Bible has formed such an important part of our culture.

Now the culture is made of old things, it's a collage. Art made out of art is not art. You're supposed to make art out of life.

Romanticism is the mother of kitsch and that there are moments when the child becomes so like its mother that one cannot differentiate between them

There is something very powerful about German music. That's why I chose German music with a European meaning for the day of my election.

Every work of Genius is tinctured by the feelings, and often originates in the events of times.

I think the material that inspires artists is the fabric of the soul of civilization.

The power of the Latin classic is in character , that of the Greek is in beauty . Now character is capable of being taught, learnt, and assimilated: beauty hardly.

Jazz never ends... it just continues.

I am sure my music has a taste of codfish in it.

As a child in Sydney, my German Mum and my Austrian Dad would spontaneously tell me stories about what they saw and what they did as children. It was like a piece of Europe coming into our house... Those stories led me to my writing.