Julian Barnes

“The constant tug between nature and civilization is what keeps on our toes. Though of course, that did rather beg the question…

— Julian Barnes

Iconic Paris tells us: here are our three-star attractions, go thou and marvel. And so we gaze obediently at what we are…

— Julian Barnes

“Cut privet still smells of sour apples, as it did when I was sixteen; but this is a rare, lingering exception. At…

— Julian Barnes

You can't have a novel without real, believable people, and once you get into either too theoretical a novel or too philosophical…

— Julian Barnes

“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

What is the easiest, the most comfortable thing for a writer to do? To congratulate the society in which he lives: to…

— Julian Barnes

“Some admit the damage, and try to mitigate it; some spend their lives trying to help others who are damaged; and then…

— Julian Barnes

A pier is a disappointed bridge; yet stare at it for long enough and you can dream it to the other side…

— Julian Barnes

He thought of trying to explain something he had recently noticed about himself: that if anyone insulted him, or one of his…

— Julian Barnes

Discovering, for example, that as witnesses to your life diminish, there is less corroboration, and therefore less certainty, as to what you…

— Julian Barnes

“We live in time - it holds us and molds us - but I never felt I understood it very well. And…

— Julian Barnes

“If I can't be sure of the actual events any more, I can at least be true to the impressions those facts…

— Julian Barnes

We thought we were being mature when we were only being safe. We imagined we were being responsible but were only being…

— Julian Barnes

“Cooking is the transformation of uncertainty (the recipe) into certainty (the dish) via fuss.”

— Julian Barnes

Most people, in my opinion, steal much of what they are. If they didn't what poor items they would be.

— Julian Barnes

“Try as I could -which wasn't very hard- I rarely ended up fantasising a markedly different life from the one that has…

— Julian Barnes

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

Whisky, I find, helps clarity of thought. And reduces pain. It has the additional virtue of making you drunk or, if taken…

— Julian Barnes

Loving humanity means as much, and as little, as loving raindrops, or loving the Milky Way. You say that you love humanity?…

— Julian Barnes

The best life for a writer is the life which helps him write the best books he can.

— Julian Barnes

“Remorse, etymologically, is the action of biting again: that's what the feeling does to you. Imagine the strength of the bite when…

— Julian Barnes

When you're young - when I was young - you want your emotions to be like the ones you read about in…

— Julian Barnes

“Alice was surprised. In her worldview, everything was hopeless, but you just had to get on with it. And there wasn’t much…

— Julian Barnes

“Initially, you continue doing what you used to do with her, out of familiarity, love, the need for a pattern. Soon, you…

— Julian Barnes

When you read a great book, you don't escape from life, you plunge deeper into it.

— Julian Barnes