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Top 500 Ian McEwan Quotes (2026 Update)
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Ian McEwan Quote: “He was looking at her with amused suspicion. There was something between them, and even she had to acknowledge that a tame remark about the weather sounded perverse.”

151. “He was looking at her with amused suspicion. There was something between them, and even she had to acknowledge that a tame remark about the weather sounded perverse.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “The primitive thinking of the supernaturally inclined amounts to what his psychiatric colleagues call a problem, or an idea, of reference. An excess of the subjective, the ordering of the world in line with your needs, an inability to contemplate your own unimportance. In Henry’s view such reasoning belongs on a spectrum at whose far end, rearing like an abandoned temple, lies psychosis.”

152. “The primitive thinking of the supernaturally inclined amounts to what his psychiatric colleagues call a problem, or an idea, of reference. An excess of the subjective, the ordering of the world in line with your needs, an inability to contemplate your own unimportance. In Henry’s view such reasoning belongs on a spectrum at whose far end, rearing like an abandoned temple, lies psychosis.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Her purity of spirit would never be in doubt, though she moved through a blemished world.”

153. “Her purity of spirit would never be in doubt, though she moved through a blemished world.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “For the professors in the academy, for the humanities generally, misery is more amenable to analysis: happiness is a harder nut to crack.”

154. “For the professors in the academy, for the humanities generally, misery is more amenable to analysis: happiness is a harder nut to crack.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Most of humanity gets by without reading novels or poetry, and no one would deny the richness of their thoughts.”

155. “Most of humanity gets by without reading novels or poetry, and no one would deny the richness of their thoughts.”

Featured in: Reading Quotes

Ian McEwan Quote: “From where I am, you and my mother and the world are all one. Hyperbole, I know. The world is also full of wonders, which is why I’m foolishly in love with it. And I love and admire you both. What I’m saying is, I’m fearful of rejection.”

156. “From where I am, you and my mother and the world are all one. Hyperbole, I know. The world is also full of wonders, which is why I’m foolishly in love with it. And I love and admire you both. What I’m saying is, I’m fearful of rejection.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “He wanted a father, and for the same reason, he wanted to be a father.”

157. “He wanted a father, and for the same reason, he wanted to be a father.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “At the back of my mind I had a sense of us sitting about waiting for some terrible event, and then I would remember that it had already happened.”

158. “At the back of my mind I had a sense of us sitting about waiting for some terrible event, and then I would remember that it had already happened.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “It is shaming sometimes how the body will not, or cannot, lie about emotions. Who, for decorum’s sake, has ever slowed his heart, or muted a blush?”

159. “It is shaming sometimes how the body will not, or cannot, lie about emotions. Who, for decorum’s sake, has ever slowed his heart, or muted a blush?”

Ian McEwan Quote: “He was making one of the advances typical of early adulthood: the discovery that there were new values by which he preferred to be judged.”

160. “He was making one of the advances typical of early adulthood: the discovery that there were new values by which he preferred to be judged.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “When love dies and a marriage lies in ruins, the first casualty is honest memory, decent, impartial recall of the past. Too inconvenient, too damning of the present. It’s the spectre of old happiness at the feast of failure and desolation.”

161. “When love dies and a marriage lies in ruins, the first casualty is honest memory, decent, impartial recall of the past. Too inconvenient, too damning of the present. It’s the spectre of old happiness at the feast of failure and desolation.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Florence suspected that there was something profoundly wrong with her, that she had always been different, and that at last she was about to be exposed. Her problem, she thought, was greater, deeper, than straightforward physical disgust: her whole being was in revolt against the prospect of entanglement and flesh; her composure and essential happiness were about to be violated.”

162. “Florence suspected that there was something profoundly wrong with her, that she had always been different, and that at last she was about to be exposed. Her problem, she thought, was greater, deeper, than straightforward physical disgust: her whole being was in revolt against the prospect of entanglement and flesh; her composure and essential happiness were about to be violated.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “From this new and intimate perspective, she learned a simple, obvious thing she had always known, and everyone knew; that a person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn, not easily mended.”

163. “From this new and intimate perspective, she learned a simple, obvious thing she had always known, and everyone knew; that a person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn, not easily mended.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves, Confucius said. Revenge unstitches civilisation.”

164. “Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves, Confucius said. Revenge unstitches civilisation.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “As he pushed her by the shoulder toward the gate, the rising howl commenced. Nightmares had beome a science. Someone, a mere human, had taken the time to dream up this satanic howling. And what success! It was the sound of panic itself, mounting and straining toward the extinction they all knew, individually, to be theirs. It was a sound you were obliged to take personally.”

165. “As he pushed her by the shoulder toward the gate, the rising howl commenced. Nightmares had beome a science. Someone, a mere human, had taken the time to dream up this satanic howling. And what success! It was the sound of panic itself, mounting and straining toward the extinction they all knew, individually, to be theirs. It was a sound you were obliged to take personally.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “There was something fascinating about tall thin men, the way their bones and Adam’s apple lurked so unconcealed beneath the skin, their birdlike faces, their predatory stoop.”

166. “There was something fascinating about tall thin men, the way their bones and Adam’s apple lurked so unconcealed beneath the skin, their birdlike faces, their predatory stoop.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Who could ever reckon up the damage done to love and friendship and all hopes of happiness by a surfeit or depletion of this or that neurotransmitter? And who will ever find a morality, an ethics down among the enzymes and amino acids when the general taste is for looking in the other direction?”

167. “Who could ever reckon up the damage done to love and friendship and all hopes of happiness by a surfeit or depletion of this or that neurotransmitter? And who will ever find a morality, an ethics down among the enzymes and amino acids when the general taste is for looking in the other direction?”

Ian McEwan Quote: “It was once convenient to think biblically, to believe we’re surrounded for our benefit by edible automata on land and sea. Now it turns out that even fish can feel pain. This is the growing complication of the modern condition, the expanding circle of moral sympathy.”

168. “It was once convenient to think biblically, to believe we’re surrounded for our benefit by edible automata on land and sea. Now it turns out that even fish can feel pain. This is the growing complication of the modern condition, the expanding circle of moral sympathy.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “This was still the era – it would end later in that famous decade – when to be young was a social encumbrance, a mark of irrelevance, a faintly embarrassing condition for which marriage was the beginning of a cure.”

169. “This was still the era – it would end later in that famous decade – when to be young was a social encumbrance, a mark of irrelevance, a faintly embarrassing condition for which marriage was the beginning of a cure.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Was he pretending to be jealous to conceal the fact that he was?”

170. “Was he pretending to be jealous to conceal the fact that he was?”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Memory’s got nothing to do with years. You remember what you remember.”

171. “Memory’s got nothing to do with years. You remember what you remember.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “The narrative compression of storytelling, especially in the movies, beguiles us with happy endings into forgetting that sustained stress is corrosive of feeling. It’s the great deadener. Those moments of joyful release from terror are not so easily had.”

172. “The narrative compression of storytelling, especially in the movies, beguiles us with happy endings into forgetting that sustained stress is corrosive of feeling. It’s the great deadener. Those moments of joyful release from terror are not so easily had.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “For children, childhood is timeless. It is always the present. Everything is in the present tense. Of course, they have memories. Of course, time shifts a little for them and Christmas comes round in the end. But they don’t feel it. Today is what they feel, and when they say ‘When I grow up,’ there is always an edge of disbelief – how could they ever be other than what they are?”

173. “For children, childhood is timeless. It is always the present. Everything is in the present tense. Of course, they have memories. Of course, time shifts a little for them and Christmas comes round in the end. But they don’t feel it. Today is what they feel, and when they say ‘When I grow up,’ there is always an edge of disbelief – how could they ever be other than what they are?”

Ian McEwan Quote: “I saw the same joy, the same uncontrollable smile in the faces of a Nigerian earth mama, a thin-lipped Scottish granny and a pale correct Japanese businessman as they wheeled their trolleys in and recognised a figure in the expectant crowd. Observing human variety can give pleasure, but so too can human sameness.”

174. “I saw the same joy, the same uncontrollable smile in the faces of a Nigerian earth mama, a thin-lipped Scottish granny and a pale correct Japanese businessman as they wheeled their trolleys in and recognised a figure in the expectant crowd. Observing human variety can give pleasure, but so too can human sameness.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Early in my conscious life one of my fingers, not then subject to my influence, brushed past a shrimp-like protuberance between my legs. And though shrimp and fingertip lay at differing distances from my brain, they felt each other simultaneously, a diverting issue in neuroscience known as the binding problem.”

175. “Early in my conscious life one of my fingers, not then subject to my influence, brushed past a shrimp-like protuberance between my legs. And though shrimp and fingertip lay at differing distances from my brain, they felt each other simultaneously, a diverting issue in neuroscience known as the binding problem.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “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.”

176. “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 Quote: “Marriage was the thing, or rather, a wedding was, with its formal neatness of virtue rewarded, the thrill of its pageantry and banqueting, and dizzy promise of lifelong union.”

177. “Marriage was the thing, or rather, a wedding was, with its formal neatness of virtue rewarded, the thrill of its pageantry and banqueting, and dizzy promise of lifelong union.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “What is it precisely, that feeling of ‘returning’ from a poem? Something is lighter, softer, larger – then it fades, but never completely.”

178. “What is it precisely, that feeling of ‘returning’ from a poem? Something is lighter, softer, larger – then it fades, but never completely.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “How can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God? There is no one, no entity or higher form that she can appeal to, or be reconciled with, or that can forgive her. There is nothing outside her. In her imagination she has set the limits and the terms. No atonement for God, or novelists, even if they are atheists. It was always an impossible task, and that was precisely the point. The attempt was all.”

179. “How can a novelist achieve atonement when, with her absolute power of deciding outcomes, she is also God? There is no one, no entity or higher form that she can appeal to, or be reconciled with, or that can forgive her. There is nothing outside her. In her imagination she has set the limits and the terms. No atonement for God, or novelists, even if they are atheists. It was always an impossible task, and that was precisely the point. The attempt was all.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Especially difficult when the first and best unconscious move of a dedicated liar is to persuade himself he’s sincere. And once he’s sincere, all deception vanishes.”

180. “Especially difficult when the first and best unconscious move of a dedicated liar is to persuade himself he’s sincere. And once he’s sincere, all deception vanishes.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “It’s the essence of a degenerating mind periodically, to lose all sense of continuous self, and therefore any regard for what others think of your lack of continuity.”

181. “It’s the essence of a degenerating mind periodically, to lose all sense of continuous self, and therefore any regard for what others think of your lack of continuity.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Yes, her childlessness was a fugue in itself, a flight- this was the habitual theme she was trying now to resist- a flight from her proper destiny. Her failure to become a woman, as her mother understood the term.”

182. “Yes, her childlessness was a fugue in itself, a flight- this was the habitual theme she was trying now to resist- a flight from her proper destiny. Her failure to become a woman, as her mother understood the term.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Lovers arrive at their first kisses with scars as well as longings. They’re not always looking for advantage. Some need shelter, others press only for the hyperreality of ecstasy, for which they’ll tell outrageous lies or make irrational sacrifice. But they rarely ask themselves what they need or want.”

183. “Lovers arrive at their first kisses with scars as well as longings. They’re not always looking for advantage. Some need shelter, others press only for the hyperreality of ecstasy, for which they’ll tell outrageous lies or make irrational sacrifice. But they rarely ask themselves what they need or want.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “I’ve never outgrown that feeling of mild pride, of acceptance, when children take your hand.”

184. “I’ve never outgrown that feeling of mild pride, of acceptance, when children take your hand.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “She had the power to remove a child from an unkind parent and she sometimes did. But remove herself from an unkind husband? When she was weak and desolate? Where was her protective judge?”

185. “She had the power to remove a child from an unkind parent and she sometimes did. But remove herself from an unkind husband? When she was weak and desolate? Where was her protective judge?”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Reading groups, readings, breakdowns of book sales all tell the same story: when women stop reading, the novel will be dead.”

186. “Reading groups, readings, breakdowns of book sales all tell the same story: when women stop reading, the novel will be dead.”

Featured in: Reading Quotes

Ian McEwan Quote: “I’ve heard it argued that long ago pain begat consciousness. To avoid serious damage a simple.”

187. “I’ve heard it argued that long ago pain begat consciousness. To avoid serious damage a simple.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “No child, still less a fetus, has ever mastered the art of small talk, or would ever want to. It’s an adult device, a covenant with boredom and deceit.”

188. “No child, still less a fetus, has ever mastered the art of small talk, or would ever want to. It’s an adult device, a covenant with boredom and deceit.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “I turned the pages so fast. And I suppose I was, in my mindless way, looking for a something, version of myself, a heroine I could slip inside as one might a pair of favourite shoes.”

189. “I turned the pages so fast. And I suppose I was, in my mindless way, looking for a something, version of myself, a heroine I could slip inside as one might a pair of favourite shoes.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “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.”

190. “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 Quote: “Childhoods shine through adult skin, helpfully or not.”

191. “Childhoods shine through adult skin, helpfully or not.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “In the minds of the principals, the history of the marriage was redrafted to have been always doomed, love was recast as delusion.”

192. “In the minds of the principals, the history of the marriage was redrafted to have been always doomed, love was recast as delusion.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “I like to think that each book I start is a completely new departure But I’ve learned that whatever you do, readers will have no difficulty assimilating it into what you’ve done before.”

193. “I like to think that each book I start is a completely new departure But I’ve learned that whatever you do, readers will have no difficulty assimilating it into what you’ve done before.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “A man newly in love knows what life is.”

194. “A man newly in love knows what life is.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “She would have called after him but for the dread of being ignored.”

195. “She would have called after him but for the dread of being ignored.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Worth remembering the world was never how she anxiously dreamed it.”

196. “Worth remembering the world was never how she anxiously dreamed it.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Love wasn’t possible without a self, and nor was thinking.”

197. “Love wasn’t possible without a self, and nor was thinking.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “By measuring individual human worth, the novelist reveals the full enormity of the State.”

198. “By measuring individual human worth, the novelist reveals the full enormity of the State.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “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.”

199. “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 Quote: “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.”

200. “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.”

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