527 Quotes by Ian McEwan

Was he pretending to be jealous to conceal the fact that he was?

My prejudice was that any machine that could not tell you by its very functioning how it should be used was not worth its keep.

How could anyone presume to know the world through the eyes of an insect? Not everything had a cause, and pretending otherwise was an interference in the workings of the world that was futile, and could even lead to grief. Some things were simply so.

What is pan but a deceitful benediction on the vulgar and unhealthy fried? Where else might one fry his scallops with chilli and lime juice? In an egg timer?

Lovers arrive at their first kisses with scars as well as longings. They’re not always looking for advantage. Some need shelter, others press only for the hyperreality of ecstasy, for which they’ll tell outrageous lies or make irrational sacrifice. But they rarely ask themselves what they need or want.

Imagining what it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compassion and the beginning of morality.

My pleasure in reading is not necessarily the witnessing of something new, but of something familiar which I haven’t seen described.

I don’t hold grudges.

Either I’ve always spoken to her from the heart in times like this, or I never have and I don’t know what it means.