Best Quotes by Julian Barnes (Top 10)

  1. Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't. I'm not surprised some people prefer books.
  2. This was another of our fears: that Life wouldn't turn out to be like Literature.
  3. How often do we tell our own life story? How often do we adjust, embellish, make sly cuts? And the longer life goes on, the fewer are those around to challenge our account, to remind us that our life is not our life, merely the story we have told about our life. Told to others, but"”mainly"”to ourselves.
  4. I certainly believe we all suffer damage, one way or another. How could we not,except in a world of perfect parents, siblings, neighbours, companions? And then there is the question on which so much depends, of how we react to the damage: whether we admit it or repress it,and how this affects our dealings with others.Some admit the damage, and try to mitigate it;some spend their lives trying to help others who are damaged; and there are those whose main concern is to avoid further damage to themselves, at whatever cost. And those are the ones who are ruthless, and the ones to be careful of.
  5. The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously.
  6. Does character develop over time? In novels, of course it does: otherwise there wouldn't be much of a story. But in life? I sometimes wonder. Our attitudes and opinions change, we develop new habits and eccentricities; but that's something different, more like decoration. Perhaps character resembles intelligence, except that character peaks a little later: between twenty and thirty, say. And after that, we're just stuck with what we've got. We're on our own. If so, that would explain a lot of lives, wouldn't it? And also - if this isn't too grand a word - our tragedy.
  7. The writer must be universal in sympathy and an outcast by nature: only then can he see clearly.
  8. I don't believe in God, but I miss him.
  9. The more you learn, the less you fear. "Learn" not in the sense of academic study, but in the practical understanding of life.
  10. Love is just a system for getting someone to call you darling after sex.

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