When we're young, everyone over the age of thirty looks middle-aged, everyone over fifty antique. And time, as it goes by, confirms that we weren't that wrong. Those little age differentials, so crucial and so gross when we are young erode. We end up all belonging to the same category, that of the non-young. I've never much minded this myself.
Julian BarnesAnd that's a life, isn't it? Some achievements and some disappointments. It's been interesting to me, though I wouldn't complain or be amazed if others found it less so. Maybe, in a way, Adrian knew what he was doing. Not that I would have missed my own life for anything, you understand. [pp.60-61]
Julian BarnesI was initially planning to write about grief in terms of Eurydice and the myth thereof. By that point the overall metaphor of height and depth and flat and falling and rising was coming into being in my mind.
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 BarnesBut Iโve been turning over in my mind the question of nostalgia, and whether I suffer from it. I certainly donโt get soggy at the memory of some childhood knickknack; nor do I want to deceive myself sentimentally about something that wasnโt even true at the timeโlove of the old school, and so on. But if nostalgia means the powerful recollection of strong emotionsโand a regret that such feelings are no longer present in our livesโthen I plead guilty.
Julian Barnes