# Quote — John Banville, The Untouchable

> I have tried to explain to her that the concept of bravery is entirely spurious. We are what we are, we do what we do.

- Author: [John Banville](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville.md)
- Book: [The Untouchable](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville/the-untouchable.md)
- Source: [Wikiquote](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/John_Banville#The_Untouchable_(1997)) ([CC BY-SA 4.0](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/))
- Quote page: https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville/the-untouchable/i-have-tried

## More from this book

> Man is only lovable in the multitude, and at a good distance.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville/the-untouchable/man-is-only.md)

> I suspect that significant first encounters only take on their aura of significance in retrospect.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville/the-untouchable/i-suspect-that.md)

> I was pondering the question, which I have pondered before, of whether such great revelatory moments really so occur, or if it is only that, out of need, our lives so lacking in drama, we invest past events with a significance they do not warrant.

[Quote page](https://www.leafyquotes.com/john-banville/the-untouchable/i-was-pondering.md)