English - Writer | January 19, 1946 -
Grief seems at first to destroy not just all patterns, but also to destroy a belief that a pattern exists.
Julian Barnes
GriefBeliefFirstPatternsDestroy
To look at ourselves from afar, to make the subjective suddenly objective: this gives us a psychic shock.
LookUsPsychicShockOurselves
What is taken away is greater than the sum of what was there. This may not be mathematically possible; but it is emotionally possible.
PossibleMayGreaterAwayThanSum
In 1980, I published my first novel, in the usual swirl of unjustified hope and justified anxiety.
HopeAnxietyFirstPublishedNovel
Well, to be honest I think I tell less truth when I write journalism than when I write fiction.
TruthThinkJournalismWriteTell
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.
ArtReadingPresentComplicated
There will always be non-readers, bad readers, lazy readers - there always were.
BadLazyWillAlwaysWereReaders
When you read a great book, you don't escape from life, you plunge deeper into it.
LifeGreatBookYouEscapePlunge
I'm a novelist, so I can't write about ideas unless they're attached to people.
PeopleIdeasWriteAttachedAbout
I am death-fearing. I don't think I'm morbid. That seems to me a fear of death that goes beyond the rational. Whereas it seems to me to be entirely rational to fear death!
FearDeathI AmMeThinkBeyond
All bad things are exaggerated in the middle of the night. When you lie awake, you only think of bad things.
LieNightThinkYouBadMiddle
I'm a complete democrat in terms of who buys my books.
DemocratCompleteBooksWhoTerms
Copyright © 2024 QuotesDict Julian Barnes quotes