Michel Faber Quotes

Powerful Michel Faber for Daily Growth

About Michel Faber

Michel Faber (1960-2017) was a critically acclaimed Dutch-Australian novelist, short story writer, screenwriter, and playwright whose unique literary style blended elements of realism, surrealism, and dark humor. Born in Hull, England on January 31, 1960, Faber spent his early years in a small town in the Netherlands before moving to Australia with his family when he was nine years old. This dual cultural upbringing significantly influenced his writing, which often explored themes of identity, memory, and connection. Faber initially pursued a career in law but soon found it unfulfilling. He turned to writing, earning a Masters in Creative Writing from the University of Tasmania in 1994. His breakthrough novel, "Under the Skin" (2000), was a dark, unsettling exploration of identity and humanity through the eyes of an alien woman driving through Scotland. In 2002, Faber published "The Crimson Petal and the White," an epic Victorian-era novel that told the story of a lowly shopgirl who rises to become a powerful businesswoman in London's underworld. The book was a critical and commercial success, winning numerous awards and being adapted into a television series. Faber continued to write novels, short stories, and screenplays until his death from liver cancer in 2017. His final novel, "The Book of Strange New Things" (2014), was a science fiction tale about a pastor sent to colonize an alien planet, dealing with the challenges of separation and the strange new world he encounters. Throughout his career, Faber's work was praised for its rich prose, intricate plotting, and profound exploration of human nature. He left behind a legacy that continues to inspire readers and writers alike.

Interpretations of Popular Quotes

"We have an inbuilt desire to be remembered after we're dead."

This quote suggests that humans have a natural, inherent need for posterity - a longing to live on in the memories of others even after physical death. This desire can drive us to leave a mark, create legacies, or make an impact in some way, as a means of ensuring our existence is acknowledged and remembered beyond our lifetimes. This need may stem from a sense of self-preservation, the quest for immortality, or simply the human instinct to connect with future generations.

"There is always something left to love. And if you aren't loved any longer, love yourself right out of your skin and heart."

This quote emphasizes the importance of love, both in receiving it from others and cultivating it within oneself. It suggests that there will always be aspects or qualities worthy of love, even if a romantic relationship has ended. Moreover, it encourages self-love, advocating for an individual to radiate love beyond their skin and heart, implying a deep and profound emotional wellbeing. The message is that one should never stop loving oneself and the world around them, no matter the circumstances.

"The only thing more important than understanding the world, is understanding oneself."

This quote emphasizes the significance of both self-awareness and knowledge about the world. The first part, "understanding the world," refers to having a comprehensive and accurate grasp of our surroundings and the world at large. However, it suggests that this understanding is not enough if we don't also focus on the second part: "understanding oneself." This implies that self-awareness—having a deep understanding of one's thoughts, feelings, strengths, weaknesses, motivations, and values—is equally essential to living a fulfilling life. In essence, it suggests that by mastering ourselves, we become better equipped to engage with the world and navigate its complexities.

"And so it goes with love: it can be either a lifelong obsession or a brief, beautiful explosion. Either way, it always changes you for good."

This quote suggests that love, regardless of its duration, leaves an indelible impact on individuals. Love can persist over a lifetime as a deep-seated passion (a lifelong obsession), or it may be intense yet fleeting (a beautiful explosion). In both cases, love alters the course and essence of one's life for the better, underscoring its transformative power in shaping our experiences.

"Every human life touches another like the string of pearls we are, strung along in time."

This quote by Michel Faber suggests that each person's life is interconnected like a string of pearls on a necklace, where each pearl represents an individual life. The pearls are "strung along in time," indicating that lives don't exist in isolation but are connected chronologically. These connections occur across different points in time, reflecting the ripple effects and impact we have on others throughout our lives. In essence, Faber is pointing out that human lives touch one another, shaping the world around us and leaving an indelible mark on its fabric over time.

'The Crimson Petal and the White' is a book, and it will win or lose the trust of each reader when they begin reading its pages. That relationship will go on.

- Michel Faber

Trust, Will, Reader, Win Or Lose

For years, I was quite a militant atheist. I wanted to burn down all the churches or turn them into second-hand record emporiums.

- Michel Faber

Burn, Second-Hand, Them, Militant

I think throughout the 20th century, for some reason, serious writers increasingly had contempt for the average reader. You can really see this in the letters of such people as Joyce and Virginia Woolf.

- Michel Faber

Reason, Some, Increasingly, None

Very few stories embody a human truth so definitively that we cannot think of the truth without remembering the story and cannot imagine how people ever got by without it.

- Michel Faber

Think, Very, Stories, Embody

My affinity, as a novelist, with Dickens has been overstated. I relish the way everything in his prose pulsates with life force, and I'm in debt to him every time I invest inanimate objects with uncanny animism. But his female characters annoy me.

- Michel Faber

Annoy, Been, Invest, Inanimate

By recycling pre-existing material, Shakespeare seemed to endorse a view common in his time, which has become even more entrenched in the 400 years since: that all the truly essential stories are already in the bag.

- Michel Faber

View, Bag, Years, Essential

My energies get used up quite quickly, and the psychic space I'm in when I write is a very lonely one, so I found that harder and harder to get back to.

- Michel Faber

Very, I Write, Quickly, Energies

All my novels are about people who strive to heal and evolve.

- Michel Faber

Evolve, Strive, About, Heal

The mere fact of my novel being filmed means very little to me. For a long while after 'The Crimson Petal's publication in 2002, it looked as though Hollywood was going to adapt it.

- Michel Faber

Fact, Very, Means, Publication

Total oblivion is the fate of almost everything in this world. I'm very likely to suffer that same fate; my work will probably not be remembered, and if any of it is, if any of those novels is fated to be one of those novels that is still being read 50 or 100 years after it was written, I've probably already written it.

- Michel Faber

Very, Almost Everything, Oblivion

I'm constantly listening to music and thinking about it and compiling my own cassettes and CDs in obsessively specific order. I have quite lunatic agendas for what I want to achieve. They won't make sense to anyone other than me, but it is what I've spent most of my life doing.

- Michel Faber

My Life, Doing, Other, CDs

In 1978, when I was 17 and in my first year at university, I read approximately 3,500 pages of Dickens.

- Michel Faber

Year, University, Read, Dickens

At university, one of my areas of study was Victorian literature, so I decided to see if I could write a novel as carefully planned and constructed as those of George Eliot, but with the narrative energy of Dickens.

- Michel Faber

Study, University, Planned, Dickens

When we ask bureaucrats to identify who is responsible for fixing anything, they reassure us that there are 'procedures in place.'

- Michel Faber

Anything, Fixing, Identify, Procedures

I'm still tremendously proud of 'Crimson Petal.' I'm still very emotionally involved with these characters. I still care about them.

- Michel Faber

Proud, Very, Still, Crimson

When answering questions over the years about film and TV adaptations of my books, I have always maintained that no movie or TV series could ever change or damage my work.

- Michel Faber

Always, Over, Damage, Answering

I think that if you are a serious writer, you are almost obligated to provide the intelligent average reader with something that they can relate to and care about. If you are writing only for a tiny elite, then that surely should sound alarm bells.

- Michel Faber

Average, I Think, Surely, Alarm

One of the things that struck me about the 1870s, which we still haven't nearly addressed, is what to do about the male-female divide. One of the forbidden topics is when men own up to the omnivorousness of their sexual interest and how to square that with being in love with an individual woman.

- Michel Faber

Love, Woman, Nearly, Struck

I had been attempting novels since I was 14 but always ran out of steam. High hopes, poor craftsmanship.

- Michel Faber

Always, Been, Attempting, Novels

I would love to have faith. When you take God out of the universe, there is no-one taking care us - we are just parcels of meat, collections of atoms - we have a little flowering on Earth, and then we're gone.

- Michel Faber

Love, Faith, Flowering, Collections

I don't remember my childhood very well for one reason or another, possibly childhood trauma or possibly just a very bad memory. My early life has sort of been erased from my memory banks.

- Michel Faber

Reason, Trauma, Very, Possibly

I get increasingly respectful of people who have faith and increasingly creeped out by them.

- Michel Faber

Faith, Get, Increasingly, Respectful

I never, ever want to be in a position where people are sitting round a table, saying, 'We've got this book. I don't really get it, but we paid for it, so we've got to sell it.' I'm not Tony Parsons; that's not right for me.

- Michel Faber

Book, Get, Got, Table

'A Christmas Carol' is an extravagantly symbolic thing - as rich in symbols as Christmas pudding is rich in raisins.

- Michel Faber

Rich, Symbolic, Carol, Pudding

I joined an Internet community of Victorian scholars, which meant that if I posted a question about 1875's lavender harvest, more than a thousand experts would ponder it.

- Michel Faber

Harvest, Meant, Which, Scholars

I strive to use references that may still make some kind of sense once our age has passed into history. That robs my writing of a certain connectedness to my time, but potentially might allow it to make sense to people who are not in this time.

- Michel Faber

Some, References, Allow, Potentially

When I was a kid, it was thought I would do something in the visual arts because I was always drawing, but when we emigrated to Australia from Holland when I was seven, I learnt the English language, and I fell in love with it.

- Michel Faber

Love, Thought, Always, Learnt

A text may be superbly written, exquisitely subtle, deeply meaningful, but still seem like a luxury extra, something we add to the already well-stocked store of our reading experience.

- Michel Faber

Add, May, Still, Extra

Most books are surplus to the world's requirements, and I am going to sound very conceited here, but I am trying to write books that aren't just using up trees.

- Michel Faber

Here, Very, Requirements, Conceited

I wanted each of my books to be very different from the others, each to be special and uncategorizable, and I knew I could only do that a few times before I was in danger of repeating myself.

- Michel Faber

Could, Before, Very, Repeating

If someone's a cartoon villain, you can dismiss them, but if they behave despicably but you kind of like them, they really get under your skin.

- Michel Faber

Villain, Cartoon, Like, Dismiss

I think there is that very basic yearning for something or someone to be looking after us, for there to be a framework holding the universe together that is benign and intelligent. We're not going to get rid of that; it's just too scary to be that molecule flying around briefly in a vacuum.

- Michel Faber

I Think, Very, Rid, Molecule

Before I was published, I thought men read car manuals or books about football. But once I started having really serious conversations with male lovers of literature, I let go of that prejudice.

- Michel Faber

Thought, Read, Having, Let Go

Really good books need a chaos element: something weird or inexplicable.

- Michel Faber

Weird, Chaos, Books, Element

Modern politicians like Cameron dream of exerting paternal influence without being seen as paternalistic, of fostering moral behaviour without being considered moralistic.

- Michel Faber

Like, Fostering, Cameron, Exerting

The privileged Victorians who did most to improve the lives of the poor were not ashamed of their pious intent: they were superiors seeking to help inferiors.

- Michel Faber

Ashamed, Lives, Inferiors, Intent

In all of my work, I think I'm exploring the idea that we are aliens to each other, how there is a huge distance that separates us all.

- Michel Faber

Think, Other, I Think, Separates

I got fed up with the human race, really. I got a very negative feeling about human potentials. And for a while, I thought I might write a book without any human beings in it whatsoever.

- Michel Faber

Very, Whatsoever, Fed, Fed Up

So many books that have Christian characters but are written by atheists mercilessly pillory and mock and question the motives of people with faith. I'm past all that.

- Michel Faber

Past, Question, Atheists, Mock

I was disinclined to have the status of a writer.

- Michel Faber

Writer, Status

I tend to process emotional stuff very, very slowly.

- Michel Faber

Process, Very, Tend, Slowly

Of course it's fun writing about an egomaniac, but I know there are going to be reviewers who've never met me, who don't know anything about me, who are going to say this is autobiography: he's just changed the names of a few people, and the rest is totally as it was.

- Michel Faber

Autobiography, About, Egomaniac

The family I grew up in was very inflexible and harsh. It left me with the feeling that if you do let somebody down badly, then even if they tell you it's all right, it cannot be all right.

- Michel Faber

Tell, Very, Badly, Inflexible

Pathos and poignancy are, to me, tactics and techniques; in my work as a writer, I fetch them from my toolbox and use them as required.

- Michel Faber

Work, Use, Pathos, Tactics

Art is head space that is very exclusive: it shuts people out; other people cease to exist.

- Michel Faber

Head, Exist, Very, Cease To Exist

I'm a loner and always have been.

- Michel Faber

Always, Been, Loner

When the person you love has cancer, they are, in a sense, living on Planet Cancer. They are in a place where you are not. And you can't follow them.

- Michel Faber

Love, Living, Planet, Cancer

One of the things my success as an author has forced me to face is how dysfunctional... Maybe that's a strong word, but how obsessive I am.

- Michel Faber

Strong, One Of The Things, Dysfunctional

History proves that most writers get forgotten anyway. That's very likely to happen to my books, and if I'm extremely lucky, maybe one of my books will survive.

- Michel Faber

Lucky, Very, Likely, Anyway

I am open-eyed about what poverty does to people.

- Michel Faber

I Am, About, Does, Poverty

On an average day, I spend 12 hours listening to music. Very little writing.

- Michel Faber

Listening, Hours, Very, Average

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