When 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 BarnesWriters of either gender ought to be able to do the opposite sex-that's one basic test of competence, after all.
Julian BarnesWhen youโre young you prefer the vulgar months, the fullness of the seasons. As you grow older you learn to like the in-between times, the months that canโt make up their minds. Perhaps itโs a way of admitting that things canโt ever bear the same certainty again.
Julian BarnesWas it the case that colours dimmed as the eye grew elderly? Or was it rather that in youth your excitement about the world transferred itself onto everything you saw and made it brighter?
Julian Barnes