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
Well, they each seem to do one thing well enough, but fail to realize that literature depends on doing several things well… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
“Of course, there were other sorts of literature -- theoretical, self-referencial, lachrymosely autobiographical -- but they were just dry wanks.” — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
[Literature is] a process of producing grand, beautiful, well-ordered lies that tell more truth than any assemblage of facts. — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
This was another of our fears: that Life wouldn't turn out to be like Literature. — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
“It's the best way of telling the truth; it's a process of producing grand, beautiful, well-ordered lies that tell more truth than… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
“Is there anything more plausible than a second hand? And yet it takes only the smallest pleasure or pain to teach us… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
Great books are readable anyway. Dickens is readable. Jane Austen is readable. John Updike's readable. Hawthorne's readable. It's a meaningless term. You… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
“This was another of our fears: that Life wouldn't turn out to be like Literature. Look at our parents--were they the stuff… — 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 Image
“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 Image
The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously. — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
“There is only good vodka and very good vodka—there is no such thing as bad vodka.” — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
Alice Munro can move characters through time in a way that no other writer can. — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
“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 Image
![“[Literature is] a process of producing grand, beautiful, well-ordered lies that tell more truth than any assemblage of facts.” quote by Julian Barnes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/0e8/julian-barnes-522_assemblage_literature-is-a-process-of-producing-gra_1198077.jpg)
![“It's the best way of telling the truth; it's a process of producing grand, beautiful, well-ordered lies that tell more truth than any assemblage of facts. Beyond that … [it's] delight in, and play with, language; also, a curiously intimate way of communicating with people whom you will never meet.” quote by Julian Barnes](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/6f7/julian-barnes-522_books_it-s-the-best-way-of-telling-the-truth-i_2016681.jpg)
