A.S. Byatt on inviting your ghosts to the cosy fireplace

“It is good for a man to invite his ghosts into his warm interior, out of the wild night, into the firelight, out of the howling dark.”
— A.S. Byatt

Antonia Susan Byatt is best known by her initials. Her books — especially the bestselling 1990 novel Possession, which everyone for a while seemed to have on their coffee table — were highly acclaimed.

The older sister of fellow English novelist Margaret Drabble, she became Dame A.S. Byatt in 1999. She died in 2023.

This quote is drawn from one of her latter novels, The Biographer’s Tale. You can browse through dozens of others (they’re adding up now) right here.