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
I am death-fearing. I don't think I'm morbid. That seems to me a fear of death that goes beyond the rational. Whereas… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
Sometimes I think the purpose of life is to reconcile us to its eventual loss by wearing us down, by proving, however… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
Well, to be honest I think I tell less truth when I write journalism than when I write fiction. — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
Later on in life, you expect a bit of rest, don't you? You think you deserve it. I did, anyway. But then… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
All bad things are exaggerated in the middle of the night. When you lie awake, you only think of bad things. — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where… — 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
I'm one of those writers who started off writing novels and came to writing short stories later, partly because I didn't have… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
Those were the days in this country where H. G. Wells, Bernard Shaw and Conan Doyle could have influence, and thats gone,… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
Love may not lead where we think or hope, but regardless of outcome it should be a call to seriousness and truth.… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
...life is a gift bestowed without anyone asking for it; that the thinking person has a philosophical duty to examine both the… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
You would think, wouldn’t you, that if you were the child of a happy marriage, then you ought to have a better… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
When you are young, you think that the old lament the deterioration of life because this makes it easier for them to… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
When you're young - when I was young - you want your emotions to be like the ones you read about in… — 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
