Quotes by Julian Barnes

Explore a curated collection of 15 quotes by Julian Barnes. Discover timeless wisdom, insightful thoughts, and memorable words that have inspired readers around the world. Browse through the gallery below and click on any quote to read more.

It's the best way of telling the truth; it's a process of producing grand, beautiful, well-ordered lies that tell more t — Julian Barnes
The better you know someone, the less well you often see them (and the less well they can therefore be transferred into — Julian Barnes
Well, they each seem to do one thing well enough, but fail to realize that literature depends on doing several things we — Julian Barnes
He thought of trying to explain something he had recently noticed about himself: that if anyone insulted him, or one of — Julian Barnes
What could be put up against the noise of time? Only that music which is inside ourselves - the music of our being - whi — Julian Barnes
One of the things he had learned in life, and which he hoped he could rely on, was that a greater pain drives out a less — Julian Barnes
Of course, there were other sorts of literature -- theoretical, self-referencial, lachrymosely autobiographical -- but t — Julian Barnes
Perhaps grief, which destroys all patterns, destroys even more: the belief that any patterns exist. But we cannot, I thi — Julian Barnes
When you are in your twenties, even if you're confused and uncertain about your aims and purposes, you have a strong sen — Julian Barnes
My brother distrusts the essential truth of memories; I distrust the way we colour them in. We each have our own cheap-m — Julian Barnes
I am more optimistic, both about reading and about books. There will always be non-readers, bad readers, lazy readers – — Julian Barnes
..books look as if they contain knowledge, while e-readers look as if they contain information. — Julian Barnes
how weird it would be to have around you only as many books as you have time to read in the rest of your life. And I rem — Julian Barnes
What does the novel do? It tells beautiful, shapely lies which enclose hard, exact truths. — Julian Barnes
In an oppressive society the truth-telling nature of literature is of a different order, and sometimes valued more highl — Julian Barnes