William Boyd (writer)

thumb|William Boyd in 2014 William Andrew Murray Boyd CBE FRSL (born 7 March 1952) is a Scottish novelist, short story writer and screenwriter. Quotes A Good Man in Africa (1981) Actually I can't stand the man. Sanctimonious, Calvinistic, so-and-so. Totally unsympathetic — can't think why he became a doctor — hectoring, bullying — sort of moral storm-trooper. Part One, Chapter 1, page 8. Like Rome, Nkongsamba was built on seven hills, but there all similarity ended. Set in undulating tropical rain forest, from the air it resembled nothing so much as a giant pool of crapulous vomit on somebody’s expansive unmown lawn. Part One, Chapter 1 Morgan liked to imagine the town as some immense yeast culture, left in a deep cupboard by an absentminded lab technician, festering uncontrolled, running rampant in the ideal growing conditions. Part One, Chapter 1 Can't you keep this bloody place tidy?" Part One, Chapter 2, page 39 There are so many hypochondriacs out here. I think Murray can spot them a mile off." Part One, Chapter 3, page 51 I want you to get to know Murray because I want you to bribe him." Part One, Chapter 4, page 55 My maid Innocence. She's dead. Part One, Chapter 6, page 69 That's Africa for you, eh? Trouble-free sex and tranquillizers. What do they call it? Post-pill paradise or something. Load of nonsense. Never seen a more neurotic, glum bunch in my life. Part Two, Chapter 1, page 90 An Ice-Cream War (1982) He saw that she treated her marriage to his father as a relentless challenge, an unending struggle under adverse conditions to get her own way. At first this manifested itself only in the naming of her children, but lately, as she had come to know her enemy, or as he had grown more senile and eccentric, evidence of her own personality long-suppressed came increasingly to the fore. Part One, Chapter Four It was a long journey back to Walter's farm, which lay near the foot of Kilimanjaro in British East Africa. First there was the coastal steamer from Dar to Tanga, and then a day's journey from Tanga to Moshi on the Northern Railway, followed by a further day's wagon ride across the border to B.E.A. and his won farm near the small town and former mission station of Taveta. Part One, Chapter One, p. 19 The New Confessions (1987) My first act on entering this world was to kill my mother. Chapter 1 I know he never loved me, but that, as far as I am concerned, is of little importance. He did not love me because, quite simply, I was a constant reminder of his loss." Chapter 1 I have no idea why he did not like me. Normally, with an age gap of six years, an older brother will treat a younger with fond enthusiasm - a favorite sidekick, an instant fan, almost like a pet - but Thompson's attitudes then, as far as I remember, were either indifference or irritation." Chapter 1 There were things about him that I found potently intriguing, but if I looked too closely at those vivid encrusted spots my scalp literally began to crawl and my eyes water." Chapter 2 "Dear Faye, I feel a little fitter today. Perhaps everything will be fine after all ..." Chapter 2 Brazzaville Beach (1990) The natural world is full of irregularity and random alteration, but in the antiseptic, dust-free, shadowless, brightly lit, abstract realm of the mathematicians they like their cabbages spherical, please. "Cabbages Are Not Spheres" It seems to me that there are statements about the world and our lives that have no need of formal proof procedures. "Fermat’s Last Theorem II" The Blue Afternoon (1993) Philip looked at me. "I was going to ask you to dinner tonight, but now that I've seen your lunch I guess you won't be hungry.' 'Ha-ha. Call me later, you may get lucky'" p. 37 I turned off Sunset Boulevard and drove up Micheltoreno to the site. The day was cloudy and an erratic and nervy wind rattled the leaves of the palmettos that the contractor had planted along the roadside. As I pulled into the curb at number 2265 I saw the old man" p. 7 External links An Ice-Cream War The New Confessions The Blue Afternoon Category:1952 births Category:Living people Category:Novelists from Scotland Category:Short story writers from Scotland Category:Screenwriters from Scotland Category:Autobiographers from Scotland Category:Essayists from Scotland Category:Playwrights from Scotland Category:Postmodern authors Category:Art critics Category:University of Oxford alumni Category:University of Oxford faculty Category:Fellows of the Royal Society of Literature