Julian Barnes quotes - page 2

I thought of the things that had happened to me over the years, and of how little I had made happen. (Julian Barnes)
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. View quote
Julian Barnes
Memories of childhood were the dreams that stayed with you after you woke. View quote
Julian Barnes
We thought we were being mature when we were only being safe. We imagined we were being responsible but were only being cowardly. What we called realism turned out to be a way of avoiding things rather than facing them. View quote
Julian Barnes
Every love story is a potential grief story. View quote
Julian Barnes
Mystification is simple; clarity is the hardest thing of all. View quote
Julian Barnes
He didn't really like travel, of course. He liked the idea of travel, and the memory of travel, but not travel itself. View quote
Julian Barnes
Life seemed even more of a guessing game than usual. View quote
Julian Barnes
To own a certain book - and to choose it without help - is to define yourself. View quote
Julian Barnes
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. View quote
Julian Barnes
I know this much: that there is objective time, but also subjective time, the kind you wear on the inside of your wrist, next to where the pulse lies. And this personal time, which is the true time, is measured in your relationship to memory. (Julian Barnes)
History is that certainty produced at the point where the imperfections of memory meet the inadequacies of documentation. View quote
Julian Barnes
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. View quote
Julian Barnes
Women scheme when they are weak, they lie out of fear. Men scheme when they are strong, they lie out of arrogance. View quote
Julian Barnes
Yes, of course we were pretentious -- what else is youth for? View quote
Julian Barnes
I had wanted life not to bother me too much, and had succeeded - and how pitiful that was. View quote
Julian Barnes
When we fall in love, we hope - both egotistically and altruistically - that we shall be finally, truly seen: judged and approved. Of course, love does not always bring approval: being seen may just as well lead to a thumbs-down and a season in hell. View quote
Julian Barnes
And yet it takes only the smallest pleasure or pain to teach us time's malleability. View quote
Julian Barnes
We live, we die, we are remembered, we are forgotten. View quote
Julian Barnes
You can put it another way, of course; you always can. View quote
Julian Barnes
There is accumulation. There is responsibility. And beyond this there is great unrest. (Julian Barnes)
What happiness is there in just the memory of happiness? View quote
Julian Barnes
The best life for a writer is the life which helps him write the best books he can. View quote
Julian Barnes
Perhaps the world progresses not by maturing, but by being in a permanent state of adolescence, of thrilled discovery. View quote
Julian Barnes
May you be ordinary, as the poet once wished the new-born baby. View quote
Julian Barnes