AtomicQuote

Julian Barnes Quote

Is despair wrong? Isn’t it the natural condition of life after a certain age? … After a number of events, what is there left but repetition and diminishment? Who wants to go on living? The eccentric, the religious, the artistic (sometimes); those with a false sense of their own worth. Soft cheeses collapse; firm cheeses indurate. Both go mouldy.

Julian Barnes

Is despair wrong? Isn’t it the natural condition of life after a certain age? … After a number of events, what is there left but repetition and diminishment? Who wants to go on living? The eccentric, the religious, the artistic (sometimes); those with a false sense of their own worth. Soft cheeses collapse; firm cheeses indurate. Both go mouldy.

Tags: despair

Related Quotes

It is usually unbearably painful to read a book by an author who knows way less than you do, unless the book is a novel.

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

It is usually unbearably painful to read a book by an author who knows way less than you do, unless the book is a novel.

Tags: acceptable, accomplishment, account, accounts, adeptness, admissible, agony, aphorism, aphorisms, aphorist

Why wait to forgive and let go only after you have sufficiently wallowed in your despair? Why not forgive and let go now?

Kamand Kojouri

Why wait to forgive and let go only after you have sufficiently wallowed in your despair? Why not forgive and let go now?

Tags: begin again, betray, betrayal, betrayed, buddha, buddhism, calm, cheat, cheated, cry

Trees lose their leaves in blizzards like these.

Ashly Lorenzana

Trees lose their leaves in blizzards like these.

Tags: blizzard, depression, despair, hopelessness, leaves, metaphor, nature, sadness, snow, symbolism

Forgiveness is a transformative act because it asks you to be a more empathetic and compassionate person, thereby making you better than the person you were when you were first hurt.

Kamand Kojouri

Forgiveness is a transformative act because it asks you to be a more empathetic and compassionate person, thereby making you better than the person you were when you were first hurt.

Tags: act, asks, begin again, begin anew, betray, betrayal, better, betterment, calm, cheat

Somewhere, somehow, maybe I can find someone who can make my heart beat again.. For everyday that I pine for your love, and for every single time you reject me, I start to die deep inside.. That throb...

Laarni Venus Marie

Somewhere, somehow, maybe I can find someone who can make my heart beat again.. For everyday that I pine for your love, and for every single time you reject me, I start to die deep inside.. That throb...

Tags: affection, bitterness, darren, despair, distance, frustration, heartache, hopelessness, love, loving him

I'm falling apart, one part after another. Falling down on the world like snow. Half of me is already on the ground, watching from below.

Ashly Lorenzana

I'm falling apart, one part after another. Falling down on the world like snow. Half of me is already on the ground, watching from below.

Tags: bleakness, coldness, depression, despair, falling, falling apart, hopelessness, poetry, rhyming, sadness

It is for your own good to love a dare-devil rather than a holy coward. A dare-devil is a unique devil, battling your fears, your pains, conquering your uncertainties, carrying you his arms, and flyin...

Michael Bassey Johnson

It is for your own good to love a dare-devil rather than a holy coward. A dare-devil is a unique devil, battling your fears, your pains, conquering your uncertainties, carrying you his arms, and flyin...

Tags: battle, conqueror, corrosive, cowardice, dare devil, despair, dread, dreadful, equanimity, fear

I'm pretty lost in becoming all this frost. Bitter, like Winter. Strung-out like a string of pearls.

Ashly Lorenzana

I'm pretty lost in becoming all this frost. Bitter, like Winter. Strung-out like a string of pearls.

Tags: bitterness, coldness, despair, frost, hopelessness, lost, pearls, poetry, sadness, winter

May we always be burdened with thinking of the suffering of others, for that is what it means to be human.

Kamand Kojouri

May we always be burdened with thinking of the suffering of others, for that is what it means to be human.

Tags: aid, always, assist, burden, compassion, compassionate, despair, disease, empathetic, empathy

Regret is the strongest anchor that latches on to the ground, and you carry it within you, it is a feeling quite unlike others for it is despair mingled with hope.

Saim .A. Cheeda

Regret is the strongest anchor that latches on to the ground, and you carry it within you, it is a feeling quite unlike others for it is despair mingled with hope.

Tags: anchor, carry, despair, feeling, ground, hope, latch, mingle, regret, strong
About Julian Barnes

Julian Patrick Barnes (born 19 January 1946) is an English writer. He won the Man Booker Prize in 2011 with The Sense of an Ending, having been shortlisted three times previously with Flaubert's Parrot, England, England, and Arthur & George. Barnes has also written crime fiction under the pseudonym Dan Kavanagh (having married Pat Kavanagh). In addition to novels, Barnes has published collections of essays and short stories.
In 2004 he became a Commandeur of L'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres. His honours also include the Somerset Maugham Award and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize. He was awarded the 2021 Jerusalem Prize.