The spring of 1930 marks the end of a period of grave concern...American business is steadily coming back to a normal level of prosperity. Julian Barnes More Quotes by Julian Barnes More Quotes From Julian Barnes If the writer were more like a reader, he’d be a reader, not a writer. It’s as uncomplicated as that. Julian Barnes uncomplicated reader ifs He didn’t really like travel, of course. He liked the idea of travel, and the memory of travel, but not travel itself. Julian Barnes memories travel ideas The writer has little control over personal temperament, none over historical moment, and is only partly in charge of his or her own aesthetic. Julian Barnes historical moments littles Is despair wrong? Isn’t it the natural condition of life after a certain age? … After a number of events, what is there left but repetition and diminishment? Who wants to go on living? The eccentric, the religious, the artistic (sometimes); those with a false sense of their own worth. Soft cheeses collapse; firm cheeses endurate. Both go mouldy. Julian Barnes despair religious numbers Life … is a bit like reading. … If all your responses to a book have already been duplicated and expanded upon by a professional critic, then what point is there to your reading? Only that it’s yours. Similarly, why live your life? Because it’s yours. But what if such an answer becomes less and less convincing? Julian Barnes live-your-life reading book I dreamt that I woke up. It's the oldest dream of all, and I've just had it Julian Barnes dream The land of embarrassment and breakfast. Julian Barnes embarrassment land breakfast Those were the days in this country where H. G. Wells, Bernard Shaw and Conan Doyle could have influence, and thats gone, thats true. But I dont think we have less influence in the hearts and minds of readers. I think, if anything, we have just as much, if not more. Julian Barnes heart country thinking When you are young, you think that the old lament the deterioration of life because this makes it easier for them to die without regret. When you are old, you become impatient with the way in which the young applaud the most insignificant improvements … while remaining heedless of the world’s barbarism. I don’t say things have got worse; I merely say the young wouldn’t notice if they had. The old times were good because then we were young, and ignorant of how ignorant the young can be. Julian Barnes ignorant regret thinking What is the easiest, the most comfortable thing for a writer to do? To congratulate the society in which he lives: to admire its biceps, applaud its progress, tease it endearingly about its follies. Julian Barnes biceps tease progress You put together two people who have not been put together before; and sometimes the world is changed, sometimes not. They may crash and burn, or burn and crash. But sometimes, something new is made, and then the world is changed. Together, in that first exaltation, that first roaring sense of uplift, they are greater than their two separate selves. Together, they see further, and they see more clearly. Julian Barnes uplifting self two A pier is a disappointed bridge; yet stare at it for long enough and you can dream it to the other side of the Channel. Julian Barnes disappointment bridges dream You can't have a novel without real, believable people, and once you get into either too theoretical a novel or too philosophical a novel, you get into the dangers that the French novel has discovered in the past 50 or 60 years. And you get into a sort of aridity. No, you have to have real, identifiable people to whom the reader reacts in a way as if they were real people. Julian Barnes philosophical real past 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 have to go the very extremes of literature, like Joyce's "Finnegan's Wake," before you get a literary work that literally unreadable. Julian Barnes hawthorne literature book I'm one of those writers who started off writing novels and came to writing short stories later, partly because I didn't have the right ideas, partly because I think that short stories are more difficult. I think learning to write short stories also made me attracted toward a paring down of the novel form. Julian Barnes writing ideas thinking Books say: she did this because. Life says: she did this. Books are where things are explained to you, life where things aren't. Julian Barnes say things you life
