707 Quotes by Julian Barnes

Next to not living with those one loves, the worst torture is living with those one doesn’t love.

Those in the middle got killed; governments and terrorists survived. At.

My philosopher friend, who gazed on life and decided that any responsible, thinking individual should have the right to reject this gift that had never been asked for – and whose noble gesture reemphasised with each passing decade the compromise and littleness that most lives consist of. ‘Most lives’: my life.

I want a more difficult life, that’s all. What I really want is a first-rate life. I may not get it, but the only chance I have lies in getting out of a second-rate life. I may fail completely, but I do want to try. It’s to do with me, not you; so don’t worry.

Opera cuts to the chase – as death does. An art which seeks, more obviously than any other form, to break your heart.

Film-makers and actors can only show a version of the act, but writers can express what people are thinking, feeling, as well as doing.

Had my life increased, or merely added to itself? This was the question Adrian’s fragment set off in me. There had been addition – and subtraction – in my life, but how much multiplication? And this gave me a sense of unease, of unrest.

The way, the truth and the life. You go on your way through life telling the truth.

Sarcasm was dangerous to its user, identifiable as the language of the wrecker and the saboteur. But irony – perhaps, sometimes, so he hoped – might enable you to preserve what you valued, even as the noise of time became loud enough to knock out window-panes.