Julian Barnes
Julian Barnes
Julian Patrick Barnesis an English writer. Barnes won the Man Booker Prize for his book The Sense of an Ending, and three of his earlier books had been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: Flaubert's Parrot, England, England, and Arthur & George. He has also written crime fiction under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh. In addition to novels, Barnes has published collections of essays and short stories...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth19 January 1946
art order elements
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.
dubious influence sometimes
In Britain I'm sometimes regarded as a suspiciously Europeanized writer, who has this rather dubious French influence.
writing ideas people
I'm a novelist, so I can't write about ideas unless they're attached to people.
book democrat term
I'm a complete democrat in terms of who buys my books.
artist years paris
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.
self survival instinct
I have an instinct for survival, for self-preservation.
thinking morbid fear-of-death
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!
grief patterns firsts
Grief seems at first to destroy not just all patterns, but also to destroy a belief that a pattern exists.
important lines speak
Do we tend to recall the most important parts of a novel or those that speak most directly to us, the truest lines or the flashiest ones?
book way doe
But life never lets you go, does it? You can't put down life the way you put down a book.
giving decision enough-time
Time...give us enough time and our best-supported decisions will seem wobbly, our certainties whimsical.
stories
In life, every ending is just the start of another story.
book grind promotion
Often the grind of book promotion wearies you of your own book - though at the same time this frees you from its clutches.
past looks faults
If you remember your past too well you start blaming your present for it. Look what they did to me, that's what caused me to be like this, it's not my fault. Permit me to correct you: it probably is your fault. And kindly spare me the details.