Ian McEwan quotes - page 4

You enter a state of controlled passivity, you relax your grip and accept that even if your declared intention is to justify the ways of God to man, you might end up interesting your readers rather more in Satan. (Ian McEwan)
Politics is the enemy of the imagination. View quote
Ian McEwan
One has to have the courage of one's pessimism. View quote
Ian McEwan
By concentrating on what is good in people, by appealing to their idealism and their sense of justice, and by asking them to put their faith in the future, socialists put themselves at a severe disadvantage. View quote
Ian McEwan
On a recent Sunday evening, Theo came up with an aphorism: the bigger you think, the crappier it looks. Asked to explain he said, "When we go on about the big things, the political situation, global warming, world poverty, it all looks really terrible, with nothing getting better, nothing to look forward to. But when I think small, closer in – you know, a girl I've just met, or this song we're going to do with Chas, or snowboarding next month, then it looks great. So this is going to be my motto – think small." View quote
Ian McEwan
When a court determines any question with respect to ... the upbringing of a child ... the child's welfare shall be the court's paramount consideration. ~ Section 1(1) Children Act 1989. View quote
Ian McEwan
He saw that no one owned anything really. It's all rented, or borrowed. Our possessions will outlast us, we'll desert them in the end. View quote
Ian McEwan
I'm holding back, delaying the information. I'm lingering in the prior moment because it was a time when other outcomes were still possible. View quote
Ian McEwan
If life was a dream, then dying must be the moment when you woke up. It was so simple it must be true. You died, the dream was over, you woke up. That's what people meant when they talked about going to heaven. It was like waking up. View quote
Ian McEwan
How can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God? View quote
Ian McEwan
I want to live in a place where strangers rush to help someone in distress. (Ian McEwan)
He who hesitates is not only lost, but miles from the next exit. View quote
Ian McEwan
I always used to deny this, but I guess what I'm really saying is that I was writing to shock... And I dug deep and dredged up all kinds of vile things which fascinated me at the time. View quote
Ian McEwan
It is shaming sometimes, how the body will not, or cannot, lie about emotions. View quote
Ian McEwan
At the risk of sounding like Virginia Woolf, I could live on £700 a year. View quote
Ian McEwan
I was an intimate sort of child who never spoke up in groups. I preferred close friends. View quote
Ian McEwan
Not being boring is quite a challenge. View quote
Ian McEwan
What I've discovered and really confirmed to myself is that opera really likes loud colours, and you need something bold, something savage, unpredictable, passionate. You can't really run a two-hour opera round some muted murmuring. View quote
Ian McEwan
The end of secrecy would be the end of the novel - especially the English novel. The English novel requires social secrecy, personal secrecy. View quote
Ian McEwan
I don't hold grudges. View quote
Ian McEwan
I wouldn't mind being the lead guitarist in an incredibly successful rock band. However, I don't play the guitar. (Ian McEwan)
Novelists have to be adept at controlling the flow of information, and, most crucially, they have to be in charge of the narrative. View quote
Ian McEwan
I'm quite good at not writing. View quote
Ian McEwan
Scientists do stand on the shoulders of giants, just as do writers. Conversely, in the arts we do make discoveries. We do refine our tools. So I am arguing with, or at least playing with, the idea that art never improves. View quote
Ian McEwan
I don't really believe in evil at all. View quote
Ian McEwan