Ian Mcewan
Ian Mcewan
Ian Russell McEwan CBE FRSA FRSLis an English novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, The Times featured him on their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945"...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth21 June 1948
strong things-in-life novelists
I do have a very strong sense that most of the terrible things in life happen suddenly and unpredictably, and certainly can sweep you off in different directions, and that is always of interest to a novelist.
teacher stupid school
The trouble with being a daydreamer who doesn’t say much is that the teachers at school, especially those who don’t know you very well, are likely to think you’re rather stupid. Or, if not stupid, then dull. No one can see the amazing things that are going on in your head.
opportunity class betrayed
Screenwriting is an opportunity to fly first class, be treated like a celebrity, sit around the pool and be betrayed.
identical
What is lawful is not always identical to what is right.
writing imagination fancy
Wasn't writing a kind of soaring, an achievable form of flight, of fancy, of the imagination?
religious art simple
Finally he spoke the three simple words that no amount of bad art or bad faith can every quite cheapen. She repeated them, with exactly the same slight emphasis on the second word, as though she were the one to say them first. He had no religious belief, but it was impossible not to think of an invisible presence or witness in the room, and that these words spoken aloud were like signatures on an unseen contract.
dream cost littles
The cost of oblivious daydreaming was always this moment of return, the realignment with what had been before and now seemed a little worse.
doing-nothing changed courses
This is how the entire course of a life can be changed: by doing nothing.
football children stupid
Watching him during the first several minutes of his delivery, Cecilia felt a pleasant sinking sensation in her stomach as she contemplated how deliciously self-destructive it would be, almost erotic, to be married to a man so nearly handsome, so hugely rich, so unfathomably stupid. He would fill her with his big-faced children, all of them loud, boneheaded boys with a passion for guns and football and aeroplanes.
diversion consequence being-wrong
When there are no consequences, being wrong is simply a diversion.
curiosity might world
The moment you lose curiosity in the world, you might as well be dead.
depression firsts nails
You can tell a lot from a person's nails. When a life starts to unravel, they're among the first to go.
writing stronger might
At that moment, the urge to be writing was stronger than any notion she had of what she might write.
interesting comforting liberation
But it was too interesting, too new, too flattering, too deeply comforting to resist, it was a liberation to be in love and say so, and she could only let herself go deeper.