Julian Barnes

Born :19 January 1946

English1946

Julian Barnes born on 19th January 1946. As of today 7th May 2025 , we have thoughtfully curated a selection of 29 powerful, inspirational, and motivational quotes - carefully handpicked from an extensive archive of life lessons and timeless wisdom. This legendary quote writer was born in english and went on to share won inspiring words with the world, leaving behind a global legacy that transcends borders.

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Quotes of Julian Barnes

Timeless words and powerful thoughts from Julian Barnes - discover the wisdom, inspiration, and voice behind the quotes that continue to resonate

What is taken away is greater than the sum of what was there. This may not be mathematically possible; but it is emotionally possible.

Reading is a majority skill but a minority art. Yet nothing can replace the exact, complicated, subtle communion between absent author and entranced, present reader.

Reading and life are not separate but symbiotic. And for this serious task of imaginative discovery and self-discovery, there is and remains one perfect symbol: the printed book.

Paris is certainly one of the most boastful of cities, and you could argue that it has had a lot to boast about: at various times the European centre of power, of civilisation, of the arts, and (self-advertisingly, at least) of love.

It took me some years to clear my head of what Paris wanted me to admire about it, and to notice what I preferred instead. Not power-ridden monuments, but individual buildings which tell a quieter story: the artist's studio, or the Belle Epoque house built by a forgotten financier for a just-remembered courtesan.

In an oppressive society the truth-telling nature of literature is of a different order, and sometimes valued more highly than other elements in a work of art.

I am death-fearing. I don't think I'm morbid. That seems to me a fear of death that goes beyond the rational. Whereas it seems to me to be entirely rational to fear death!

Well, to be honest I think I tell less truth when I write journalism than when I write fiction.

There will always be non-readers, bad readers, lazy readers - there always were.

The land of embarrassment and breakfast.

In Britain I'm sometimes regarded as a suspiciously Europeanized writer, who has this rather dubious French influence.

I'm a complete democrat in terms of who buys my books.

I hate the way the English have of not being serious about being serious, I really hate it.

Books say: she did this because. Life says: she did this. Books are where things are explained to you, life where things aren't.

Iconic Paris tells us: here are our three-star attractions, go thou and marvel. And so we gaze obediently at what we are told to gaze at, without exactly asking why.