Well, to be honest I think I tell less truth when I write journalism than when I write fiction.
Julian BarnesReading is a majority skill but a minority art. Yet nothing can replace the exact, complicated, subtle communion between absent author and entranced, present reader.
Julian BarnesMost of us remember adolescence as a kind of double negative: no longer allowed to be children, we are not yet capable of being adults.
Julian BarnesWhen you are young, you think that the old lament the deterioration of life because this makes it easier for them to die without regret. When you are old, you become impatient with the way in which the young applaud the most insignificant improvements โฆ while remaining heedless of the worldโs barbarism. I donโt say things have got worse; I merely say the young wouldnโt notice if they had. The old times were good because then we were young, and ignorant of how ignorant the young can be.
Julian BarnesSometimes you find the panel, but it doesnโt open; sometimes it opens, and your gaze meets nothing but a mouse skeleton. But at least youโve looked. Thatโs the real distinction between people: not between those who have secrets and those who donโt, but between those who want to know everything and those who donโt. This search is a sign of love I maintain.
Julian Barnes