If a man cannot tell what he wants to do, then he must find out what he ought to do. If desire has become complicated, then hold fast to duty.
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 BarnesIf the writer were more like a reader, heโd be a reader, not a writer. Itโs as uncomplicated as that.
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 Barnes(on grief) And you do come out of it, thatโs true. After a year, after five. But you donโt come out of it like a train coming out of a tunnel, bursting through the downs into sunshine and that swift, rattling descent to the Channel; you come out of it as a gull comes out of an oil-slick. You are tarred and feathered for life.
Julian Barnes