# Quote — Christopher Isherwood, Prater Violet

> 'Let me tell you something,' he began, as he dropped my manuscript casually into the waste-paper-basket. 'The Film is a symphony. Each movement is written in a certain key. There is a note which has to be chosen and struck immediately. It is characteristic of the whole. It commands the attention.'
>
> He started to describe the opening sequence. It was astounding. Everything came to life. The trees began to tremble in the evening breeze, the music was heard, the roundabouts were set in motion. And the people talked. Bergmann improvised their conversation, partly in German, partly in ridiculous English; and it was vivid and real. It was all so simple, so effective, so obvious. Why hadn't I thought of it myself?

- Author: [Christopher Isherwood](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood.md)
- Book: [Prater Violet](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood/prater-violet.md)
- Page: 27
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Christopher_Isherwood#Prater_Violet_(1945)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood/prater-violet/let-me-tell

## More from this book

> 'Why should you do a job anyway? What's the incentive?'
>
> 'The incentive is to fight anarchy. That's all Man lives for. Reclaiming life from its natural muddle. Making patterns.'
>
> 'Patterns for what?'
>
> 'For the sake of patterns. To create meaning. What else is there?'
>
> 'And what about the things that won't fit into your patterns?'
>
> 'Discard them.'

p. 55 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood/prater-violet/why-should-you.md)

> The result of the rebuilding was a maze of crooked stairways, claustrophobic passages, abrupt dangerous ramps and Alice in Wonderland doors. Most of the smaller rooms were overcrowded, under-ventilated, separated only by plywood partitions and lit by naked bulbs hanging from wires. Everything was provisional, and liable to electrocute you, fall on your head, or come apart in your hand.

p. 52 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood/prater-violet/the-result-of-the.md)

> There is one question which we seldom ask each other directly: it is too brutal. And yet it is the only question worth asking our fellow-travellers. What makes you go on living? Why don't you kill yourself? Why is all this bearable? What makes you bear it?
>
> Could I answer that question about myself? No. Yes. Perhaps . . . I supposed, vaguely, that it was a kind of balance, a complex of tensions. You did whatever was next on the list. A meal to be eaten. Chapter eleven to be written. The telephone rings. You go off somewhere in a taxi. There is one's job. There are amusements. There are people. There are books. There are things to be bought in shops. There is always something new. There has to be. Otherwise, the balance would be upset, the tension would break.

p. 98 — [Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/christopher-isherwood/prater-violet/there-is-one.md)