The imagination doesn't crop annually like a reliable fruit tree. The writer has to gather whatever's there: sometimes too much, sometimes too little, sometimes nothing at all. And in the years of glut there is always a slatted wooden tray in some cool, dark attic, which the writer nervously visits from time to time; and yes, oh dear, while he's been hard at work downstairs, up in the attic there are puckering skins, warning spots, a sudden brown collapse and the sprouting of snowflakes. What can he do about it?
Julian BarnesIn Britain I'm sometimes regarded as a suspiciously Europeanized writer, who has this rather dubious French influence.
Julian BarnesWhen you read a great book, you donโt escape from life, you plunge deeper into it. There may be a superficial escape โ into different countries, mores, speech patterns โ but what you are essentially doing is furthering your understanding of lifeโs subtleties, paradoxes, joys, pains and truths. Reading and life are not separate but symbiotic.
Julian BarnesWhy does the writing make us chase the writer? Why can't we leave well enough alone? Why aren't the books enough?
Julian BarnesEarly 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