Friendship sometimes demands less than full disclosure, and it may be more comfortable to abstain from an accountability which may leave one open to criticism. Leaving Home , Ch. 18 Olga Kenyon: ...Which qualities do you value most in a friend? Brookner: I think accountability, that's to say explaining actions with full knowledge of emotions and procedures. You get it in Russian novels: the complete confession. Accountability in friendship is the equivalent of love without strategy, and it is the Grail . Women Writers Talk (Lennard, 1989) If such characters persist through my novels that's because I don't know much about them, not because I know them too well. I write to find out what makes them tick. 1994 Independent interview It's an easy mistake to make, especially with the novels written in the first person. But really Brookner must be given at least a little credit when she says her novels aren't about herself. Of course those first-perso...
'I suppose what one wants really is ideal company and books are ideal company.'