Nature is so exact, it hurts exactly as much as it is worth, so in a way one relishes the pain. If… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
The writer must be universal in sympathy and an outcast by nature: only then can he see clearly. — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
“One weekend in the vacation, I was invited to meet her family. They lived in Kent, out on the Orpington line, in… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
And perhaps it was also the case that, for all a lifetime's internal struggling, you were finally no more than what others… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
“The constant tug between nature and civilization is what keeps on our toes. Though of course, that did rather beg the question… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
In an oppressive society the truth-telling nature of literature is of a different order, and sometimes valued more highly than other elements… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
Nature is so exact, it hurts exactly as much as it is worth, so in a way one relishes the pain, I… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
“Is despair wrong? Isn’t it the natural condition of life after a certain age? … After a number of events, what is… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
“How do you turn catastrophe into art? Nowadays the process is automatic. A nuclear plant explodes? We'll have a play on the… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
“The law, and society, and religion all said it was impossible to be sane, healthy, and kill yourself. Perhaps those authorities feared… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
“Flaubert teaches you to gave upon the truth and not blink from its consequences; he teaches you, with Montaigne, to sleep on… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
“You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world is changed. People may not notice at the time,… — Julian Barnes Copy Share
“I settled into a contented routine of working, spending my free time with Veronica and, back in my student room, wanking explosively to fantasies… — Julian Barnes Copy Share
The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously. — Julian Barnes Copy Share
“There is only good vodka and very good vodka—there is no such thing as bad vodka.” — Julian Barnes Copy Share
Alice Munro can move characters through time in a way that no other writer can. — Julian Barnes Copy Share
How rarely do our emotions meet the object they seem to deserve? How hopelessly we signal; how dark the sky; how big the waves.… — Julian Barnes Copy Share
You put together two people who have not been put together before. Sometimes it is like that first attempt to harness a hydrogen balloon… — Julian Barnes Copy Share
“Also, when you are young, you think you can predict the likely pains and bleaknesses that age might bring. You imagine yourself being lonely,… — Julian Barnes Copy Share
“Why slum it where people were burdened by yesterday, and the day before, and the day before that? By history? Here, on the Island,… — Julian Barnes Copy Share
“In those years before mobile phones, email and Skype, travelers depended on the rudimentary communications system known as the postcard. Other methods--the long-distance phone… — Julian Barnes Copy Share
“My train was late, slowed by the usual Sunday engineering work. I got home in the early evening. I remember that I had a… — Julian Barnes Copy Share
“Indeed, isn’t the whole business of ascribing responsibility kind of a cop-out? We want to blame an individual so that everyone else is exculpated.… — Julian Barnes Copy Share
Some of the freckles I once loved are now closer to liver spots. But it’s still the eyes we look at, isn’t it? That’s… — Julian Barnes Copy Share
“And what percentage of people take up the option to die off?’ She looked at me, her glance telling me to be calm. ‘Oh,… — Julian Barnes Copy Share
