AtomicQuote

Julian Barnes Quote

Masters and parents used to remind us irritatingly that they too had once been young, and so could speak with authority. It's just a phase, they would insist. You'll grow out of it; life will teach you reality and realism. But back then we declined to acknowledge that they had ever been anything like us, and we knew that we grasped life--and truth, and morality, and art--far more clearly than our compromised elders.

Julian Barnes

Masters and parents used to remind us irritatingly that they too had once been young, and so could speak with authority. It's just a phase, they would insist. You'll grow out of it; life will teach you reality and realism. But back then we declined to acknowledge that they had ever been anything like us, and we knew that we grasped life--and truth, and morality, and art--far more clearly than our compromised elders.

Related Quotes

It's really kind of cool to have solar panels on your roof.

Bill Gates

It's really kind of cool to have solar panels on your roof.

Tags: cool

The underbelly of the human psyche, what is often referred to as our dark side, is the origin of every act of self-sabotage. Birthed out of shame, fear, and denial, it misdirects our good intentions a...

Debbie Ford

The underbelly of the human psyche, what is often referred to as our dark side, is the origin of every act of self-sabotage. Birthed out of shame, fear, and denial, it misdirects our good intentions a...

Tags: fear, dark, human

The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.

Abraham Lincoln

The best thing about the future is that it comes one day at a time.

Tags: best, future, time

We have two natures within us, both struggling for mastery. Which one will dominate us? It depends on which one we feed.

Billy Graham

We have two natures within us, both struggling for mastery. Which one will dominate us? It depends on which one we feed.

Tags: billy graham, human nature

The worst thing about being famous is the invasion of your privacy.

Justin Timberlake

The worst thing about being famous is the invasion of your privacy.

Tags: famous, privacy, worst, being

I don't want to be alone, I want to be left alone.

Audrey Hepburn

I don't want to be alone, I want to be left alone.

Tags: alone

Everything around you that you call life was made up by people, and you can change it.

Steve Jobs

Everything around you that you call life was made up by people, and you can change it.

Tags: inspiration, live, make your own life, mgg, steve jobs

Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.

Arthur Schopenhauer

Change alone is eternal, perpetual, immortal.

Tags: alone, change, immortal, perpetual

By drinking, a boy acts like a man. After drinking, many a man acts like a boy.

Mokokoma Mokhonoana

By drinking, a boy acts like a man. After drinking, many a man acts like a boy.

Tags: aa, act, acting, action, actor, actors, acts, addict, addiction, alcohol

Death is just the birth of yet another odyssey.

Anthony T. Hincks

Death is just the birth of yet another odyssey.

Tags: another, birth, death, life, odyssey, philosophy, yet
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, as well as two memoirs and a nonfiction book, The Man in the Red Coat, about people of Belle Époque Paris in the arts.
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.