Ian Mcewan Quotes


You enter a state of controlled passivity, you relax your grip and accept that even if your declared intention is to justify the ways of God to man, you might end up interesting your readers rather more in Satan. Ian McEwan Authors 95
I was an intimate sort of child who never spoke up in groups. I preferred close friends. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 92
It is not the first duty of the novelist to provide blueprints for insurrection, or uplifting tales of successful resistance for the benefit of the opposition. The naming of what is there is what is important. Ian McEwan Books 89
No one knows anything really. Its all rented or borrowed. Ian McEwan Knowledge 87
If life was a dream then dying must be the moment when you woke up. It was so simple it must be true. You died the dream was over you woke up. Thats what people meant when they talked about going to heaven. It was like waking up. Ian McEwan Dreaming 86
A person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn and not easily mended. Ian McEwan Vulnerability 85
I think of novels in architectural terms. You have to enter at the gate, and this gate must be constructed in such a way that the reader has immediate confidence in the strength of the building. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 84
By concentrating on what is good in people, by appealing to their idealism and their sense of justice, and by asking them to put their faith in the future, socialists put themselves at a severe disadvantage. Ian Mcewan Faith 83
Dearest Cecilia Youd be forgiven for thinking me mad the way I acted this afternoon. The truth is I feel rather light headed and foolish in your presence Cee and I dont think I can blame the heat. Ian McEwan Madness 83
It troubles him to consider the powerful currents and finetuning that alter fate the close and distant influences the accidents of character and circumstance. Ian McEwan Fate 82
We overvalue the arts in relation to the sciences. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 79
It wasnt torpor that kept her she was often restless to the point of irritability. She simply liked to feel that she was prevented from leaving that she was needed. Ian McEwan Evolution 69
You can spin stories out of the ways people understand and misunderstand each other. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 64
Especially difficult when the first and best unconscious move of a dedicated liar is to persuade himself hes sincere. And once hes sincere all deception vanishes. Ian McEwan Kindlehighlight 63
That love which does not build a foundation on good sense is doomed. Ian McEwan Sense 62
He knew these last lines by heart and mouthed them now in the darkness. My reason for life. Not living but life. That was the touch. And she was his reason for life and why he must survive. Ian McEwan Sad 62
Or he was simply pretendinglike many drinkers he liked to think each new day drew a line under the day before. Ian McEwan Kindlehighlight 54
I actually find novels that are determined to be funny at every turn quite oppressive. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 54
By measuring individual human worth, the novelist reveals the full enormity of the State Ian McEwan Individuality 52
He had never before felt so selfconsciously young nor experienced such appetite such impatience for the story to begin. Ian McEwan Youth 50
Â At the risk of sounding like Virginia Woolf, I could live on Â£700 a year. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 48
Nothing is ever as one imagines it. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 47
It was always the view of my parents Emily said that hot weather encouraged loose morals among young people. Ian McEwan Opinion 46
Hes never quite got the trick of conversation tending to hear in dissenting views however mild a kind of affront an invitation to mortal combat. Ian McEwan Conversation 45
True intelligence requires fabulous imagination. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 45
Novelists have to be adept at controlling the flow of information, and, most crucially, they have to be in charge of the narrative. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 44
He would work through the night and sleep until lunch. There wasnt really much else to do. Make something and die. Ian McEwan Work 42
Â How often one reads a contemporary full-length novel and thinks quietly, mutinously, that it would have worked out better at half or a third the length. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 41
The library door was thick and none of the ordinary sounds that might have reminded them might have held them back could reach them. They were beyond the present outside time with no memories and no future Ian McEwan Lovers 41
You could say that all novels are spy novels and all novelists are spy masters. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 41
He was thinking of that time the way one does on long journeys when rootlessness and boredom lack of sleep or routine can summon from out of nowhere random stretches of the past make them as real as a haunting. Solar Ian McEwan Time 39
You can tell a lot from a persons nails. When a life starts to unravel theyre among the first to go. Ian McEwan Despair 39
The cost of oblivious daydreaming was always this moment of return the realignment with what had been before and now seemed a little worse. Ian McEwan Imagination 38
I always used to deny this, but I guess what I'm really saying is that I was writing to shock… And I dug deep and dredged up all kinds of vile things which fascinated me at the time. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 38
She knew enough to recognize that memories were crowding in and there was nothing he could do. They wouldnt let him speak. She would never know what scenes were driving that turmoil. Ian McEwan Memories 38
The end of secrecy would be the end of the novel – especially the English novel. The English novel requires social secrecy, personal secrecy. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 37
Â In my experience an appreciative letter from a fellow writer means a lot. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 37
Perhaps the greatest reading pleasure has an element of self-annihilation. To be so engrossed that you barely know you exist. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 37
Theres a taste in the air sweet and vaguely antiseptic that reminds him of his teenage years in these streets and of a general state of longing a hunger for life to begin that from this distance seems like happiness. Ian McEwan Longing 36
Not being boring is quite a challenge. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 36
When I began I thought that literature was contained within a bubble that somehow floated above the world commented upon by newspapers. But I became more and more interested in trying to include some of that world within my work. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 35
Scientists do stand on the shoulders of giants, just as do writers. Conversely, in the arts we do make discoveries. We do refine our tools. So I am arguing with, or at least playing with, the idea that art never improves. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 34
Politics is the enemy of the imagination. Ian Mcewan Imagination 34
In that shrinking moment he discovered that he had never hated anyone until now. It was a feeling as pure as love but dispassionate and icily rational. Ian McEwan Hate 32
As regards literary culture, it fascinates me that it has been so resilient to the Union. For example, when T.S. Eliot wanted to become poet in these lands, it wasn't as an English poet, it was an Anglian poet he wanted to be. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 32
A twenty-one-year-old writer is likely to be inhibited by a lack of usable experience. Childhood and adolescence were something I knew. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 31
Some people are tied to five hundred words a day, six days a week. I'm a hesitater. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 30
Im sorry to disappoint you but my experience belongs to me not the collective bloody unconscious. Ian McEwan Society 30
When they kissed she immediately felt his tongue tensed and strong pushing past her teeth like some bully shouldering his way into a room. Entering her. Ian McEwan Intimacy 30
I want to live in a place where strangers rush to help someone in distress. Ian McEwan Uncategorized 28

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Ian Mcewan Quotes

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