527 Quotes by Ian McEwan

There was something fascinating about tall thin men, the way their bones and Adam’s apple lurked so unconcealed beneath the skin, their birdlike faces, their predatory stoop.

I like to think that it isn’t weakness or evasion, but a final act of kindness, a stand against oblivion and despair,...

Yes, her childlessness was a fugue in itself, a flight- this was the habitual theme she was trying now to resist- a flight from her proper destiny. Her failure to become a woman, as her mother understood the term.

It’s hilarious to recognize how completely another person resembles your imperfect self.

Above all, she wanted to look as though she had not given the matter a moment’s thought, and that would take time.

What I’ve discovered and really confirmed to myself is that opera really likes loud colours, and you need something bold, something savage, unpredictable, passionate. You can’t really run a two-hour opera round some muted murmuring.

The evasions of her little novel were exactly those of her life. Everything she did not wish to confront was also missing from her novella – and was necessary to it.

Only in fairy tales are unwanted babies orphaned upwards.

Loud people, especially loud women, always attract enemies.