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 When you are writing fiction your task is to reflect the fullest complications of the world Julian Barnes tasks writing fiction ..books look as if they contain knowledge, while e-readers look as if they contain information. Julian Barnes information book looks All bad things are exaggerated in the middle of the night. When you lie awake, you only think of bad things. Julian Barnes night lying thinking Love is just a system for getting someone to call you darling after sex. Julian Barnes darling love sex When you read a great book, you don't escape from life, you plunge deeper into it. Julian Barnes plunge great-book book He feared me as many men fear women: because their mistresses (or their wives) understand them. They are scarcely adult, some men: they wish women to understand them, and to that end they tell them all their secrets; and then, when they are properly understood, they hate their women for understanding them. Julian Barnes hate fear relationship Sometimes I think the purpose of life is to reconcile us to its eventual loss by wearing us down, by proving, however long it takes, that life isn't all it's cracked up to be. Julian Barnes loss long thinking History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation. Julian Barnes documentation imperfection memories We live on the flat, on the level, and yet - and so - we aspire. Groundlings, we can sometimes reach as far as the gods. Some soar with art, others with religion; most with love. But when we soar, we can also crash. There are few soft landings. We may find ourselves bouncing across the ground with leg-fracting force, dragged towards some foreign railway line. Every love story is a potential grief story. If not at first, then later. If not for one, then for the other. Sometimes, for both. Julian Barnes grief stories art What makes us want to know the worst? Is it that we tire of preferring to know the best? Does curiosity always hurdle self-interest? Or is it, more simply, that wanting to know the worst is love's favorite perversion. Julian Barnes curiosity self doe Women were brought up to believe that men were the answer. They weren't. They weren't even one of the questions. Julian Barnes answers men believe Women scheme when they are weak, they lie out of fear. Men scheme when they are strong, they lie out of arrogance. Julian Barnes women strong fear Had my life increased, or merely added to itself? There had been addition and subtraction in my life, but how much multiplication? Julian Barnes subtraction multiplication Mystification is simple; clarity is the hardest thing of all. Julian Barnes clarity purpose simple Later on in life, you expect a bit of rest, don't you? You think you deserve it. I did, anyway. But then you begin to understand that the reward of merit is not life's business. Julian Barnes merit rewards thinking I remember laughing with relief that the same old adolescent boredom goes on from generation to generation. ...the words took me back to my own years of stagnancy, and that terrible waiting for life to begin. [p. 68] Julian Barnes boredom laughing years The better you know someone, the less well you often see them (and the less well they can therefore be transferred into fiction). They may be so close as to be out of focus, and there is no operating novelist to dispel the blur. Julian Barnes focus may fiction There is accumulation. There is responsibility. And beyond this there is great unrest. Julian Barnes accumulation unrest responsibility I had wanted life not to bother me too much, and had succeeded - and how pitiful that was. Julian Barnes too-much bother wanted Early in life, the world divides crudely into those who have had sex and those who haven't. Later, into those who have known love, and those who haven't. Later still - at least, if we are lucky (or, on the other hand, unlucky) - it divides into those who have endured grief, and those who haven't. These divisions are absolute; they are tropics we cross. Julian Barnes grief sex hands
