I hate the way the English have of not being serious about being serious, I really hate it. Julian Barnes More Quotes by Julian Barnes More Quotes From Julian Barnes Everything in art depends on execution: the story of a louse can be as beautiful as the story of Alexander. You must write according to your feelings, be sure those feelings are true, and let everything else go hang. When a line is good it ceases to belong to any school. A line of prose must be as immutable as a line of poetry. Julian Barnes writingbeautifulart This was another of our fears: that Life wouldn't turn out to be like Literature. Julian Barnes turnsliterature We live with such easy assumptions, don't we? For instance, that memory equals events plus time. But it's all much odder than this. Who was it said that memory is what we thought we'd forgotten? And it ought to be obvious to us that time doesn't act as a fixative, rather as a solvent. But it's not convenient--- it's not useful--- to believe this; it doesn't help us get on with our lives; so we ignore it. Julian Barnes eventsmemoriesbelieve The writer must be universal in sympathy and an outcast by nature: only then can he see clearly. Julian Barnes outcastuniversalsympathy It strikes me that this may be one of the differences between youth and age: when we are young, we invent different futures for ourselves; when we are old, we invent different pasts for others. Julian Barnes differencesagepast The best life for a writer is the life which helps him write the best books he can. Julian Barnes writinghelpingbook Reading is a majority skill but a minority art. Yet nothing can replace the exact, complicated, subtle communion between absent author and entranced, present reader. Julian Barnes skillsreadingart Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't. Julian Barnes life-isbook Because love is the meeting point of truth and magic. Truth, as in photography; magic, as in ballooning. Julian Barnes magicphotographylove-is When you read a great book, you don’t escape from life, you plunge deeper into it. There may be a superficial escape – into different countries, mores, speech patterns – but what you are essentially doing is furthering your understanding of life’s subtleties, paradoxes, joys, pains and truths. Reading and life are not separate but symbiotic. Julian Barnes paincountrybook To look at ourselves from afar, to make the subjective suddenly objective: this gives us a psychic shock. Julian Barnes psychicsgivinglooks Pride makes us long for a solution to things – a solution, a purpose, a final cause; but the better telescopes become, the more stars appear. Julian Barnes starspridelong Remember the botched brothel-visit in L’Education sentimentale and remember its lesson. Do not participate: happiness lies in the imagination, not the act. Pleasure is found first in anticipation, later in memory. Julian Barnes imaginationmemorieslying You put together two things that have not been put together before. And the world is changed. Julian Barnes togethertwoworld His air of failure had nothing desperate about it; rather, it seemed to stem from an unresented realisation that he was not cut out for success, and his duty was therefore to ensure only that he failed in the correct and acceptable fashion. Julian Barnes fashioncuttingair But life never lets you go, does it? You can't put down life the way you put down a book. Julian Barnes doebookway In 1980, I published my first novel, in the usual swirl of unjustified hope and justified anxiety. Julian Barnes anxietyusualfirsts Time...give us enough time and our best-supported decisions will seem wobbly, our certainties whimsical. Julian Barnes enough-timedecisiongiving In Britain I'm sometimes regarded as a suspiciously Europeanized writer, who has this rather dubious French influence. Julian Barnes dubiousinfluencesometimes Often the grind of book promotion wearies you of your own book - though at the same time this frees you from its clutches. Julian Barnes promotiongrindbook
