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Top 500 Ian McEwan Quotes (2026 Update)
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Ian McEwan Quote: “His accidental fortune was beyond calculation, to have been born in 1948 in placid Hampshire, not Ukraine or Poland in 1928, not to have been dragged from the synagogue steps in 1941 and brought here. His white-tiled cell – a piano lesson, a premature love affair, a missed education, a missing wife – was by comparison a luxury suite. If his life so far was a failure, as he often thought, it was in the face of history’s largesse.”

401. “His accidental fortune was beyond calculation, to have been born in 1948 in placid Hampshire, not Ukraine or Poland in 1928, not to have been dragged from the synagogue steps in 1941 and brought here. His white-tiled cell – a piano lesson, a premature love affair, a missed education, a missing wife – was by comparison a luxury suite. If his life so far was a failure, as he often thought, it was in the face of history’s largesse.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “No one can predict which of life’s vexations insomnia will favour.”

402. “No one can predict which of life’s vexations insomnia will favour.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “He speaks in a quiet, breathy tone, exaggeratedly slow. Where do we learn such tricks? Are they inscribed, along with the rest of our emotional repertoire? Or do we get them from the movies? He says, “Look, there’s this problem out there” – he gestures to the window – “and all I wanted from you was your support and help.”

403. “He speaks in a quiet, breathy tone, exaggeratedly slow. Where do we learn such tricks? Are they inscribed, along with the rest of our emotional repertoire? Or do we get them from the movies? He says, “Look, there’s this problem out there” – he gestures to the window – “and all I wanted from you was your support and help.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “He was discovering that being in love was not a steady state, but a matter of fresh surges or waves.”

404. “He was discovering that being in love was not a steady state, but a matter of fresh surges or waves.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “But Clive stared at the empty seat opposite, lost to the self-punishing convolutions of his fervent social accounting, unknowingly bending and coloring the past through the prism of his unhappiness. Other thoughts diverted him occasionally, and for periods he read, but this was the theme of his northward journey, the long and studied redefinition of a friendship.”

405. “But Clive stared at the empty seat opposite, lost to the self-punishing convolutions of his fervent social accounting, unknowingly bending and coloring the past through the prism of his unhappiness. Other thoughts diverted him occasionally, and for periods he read, but this was the theme of his northward journey, the long and studied redefinition of a friendship.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “No one exclaims at the moment of one’s dazzling coming-out, It’s a person! Instead: It’s a girl, It’s a boy. Pink or blue. Only two sexes. I was disappointed. If human bodies, minds, fates are so complex, if we are free like no other mammal, why limit the range? I seethed, and then, like everyone else, I settled down and made the best of my inheritance. For sure, complexity would come upon me in time.”

406. “No one exclaims at the moment of one’s dazzling coming-out, It’s a person! Instead: It’s a girl, It’s a boy. Pink or blue. Only two sexes. I was disappointed. If human bodies, minds, fates are so complex, if we are free like no other mammal, why limit the range? I seethed, and then, like everyone else, I settled down and made the best of my inheritance. For sure, complexity would come upon me in time.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “The world is also full of wonders, which is why I’m foolishly in love with it.”

407. “The world is also full of wonders, which is why I’m foolishly in love with it.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “The beginning of conscious life was the end of illusion, the illusion of non-being, and the eruption of the real. The triumph of realism over magic, of is over seems.”

408. “The beginning of conscious life was the end of illusion, the illusion of non-being, and the eruption of the real. The triumph of realism over magic, of is over seems.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “How could he fail to love someone so strangely and warmly particular, so painfully honest and self-aware, whose every thought and emotion appeared naked to view, streaming like charged particles through her changing expressions and gestures?”

409. “How could he fail to love someone so strangely and warmly particular, so painfully honest and self-aware, whose every thought and emotion appeared naked to view, streaming like charged particles through her changing expressions and gestures?”

Ian McEwan Quote: “As in Northern Ireland, children, shoppers, ordinary working men were all suitable targets. Bombs in department stores and pubs would have even more impact in the context of the widely anticipated social breakdown brought on by industrial decline, high unemployment, rising inflation and an energy crisis.”

410. “As in Northern Ireland, children, shoppers, ordinary working men were all suitable targets. Bombs in department stores and pubs would have even more impact in the context of the widely anticipated social breakdown brought on by industrial decline, high unemployment, rising inflation and an energy crisis.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “This time she paused to peer out of the window at the dusk and wonder where her sister was. Drowned in the lake, ravished by gypsies, struck by a passing motor car, she thought ritually, a sound principal being that nothing was ever as one imagined it, and this was an efficient means of excluding the worst.”

411. “This time she paused to peer out of the window at the dusk and wonder where her sister was. Drowned in the lake, ravished by gypsies, struck by a passing motor car, she thought ritually, a sound principal being that nothing was ever as one imagined it, and this was an efficient means of excluding the worst.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “They had never discussed feelings, and had no language for them now.”

412. “They had never discussed feelings, and had no language for them now.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “If only she could, like the mother of Jesus, arrive at that swollen state by magic.”

413. “If only she could, like the mother of Jesus, arrive at that swollen state by magic.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Entropy was a troubling and beautiful concept that lay at the heart of much human toil and sorrow. Everything, especially life, fell apart. Order was a boulder to be rolled uphill. The kitchen would not tidy itself.”

414. “Entropy was a troubling and beautiful concept that lay at the heart of much human toil and sorrow. Everything, especially life, fell apart. Order was a boulder to be rolled uphill. The kitchen would not tidy itself.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Then it came to her plainly what she felt about Jack’s return. So simple. It was disappointment that he had not stayed away. Just a little longer. Nothing more than that. Disappointment.”

415. “Then it came to her plainly what she felt about Jack’s return. So simple. It was disappointment that he had not stayed away. Just a little longer. Nothing more than that. Disappointment.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Such a fantasy of miscegenation could be a form of racism or simple adoration, but either way he was in no mood to banish it.”

416. “Such a fantasy of miscegenation could be a form of racism or simple adoration, but either way he was in no mood to banish it.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “The new, wellspring of all bad dreams. Driven by a self-harming compulsion, I listen closely to analysis and dissent.”

417. “The new, wellspring of all bad dreams. Driven by a self-harming compulsion, I listen closely to analysis and dissent.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “And this was to be his main point – there was one overriding reason for our failure, which was the lack of coordinated intelligence. Too many agencies, too many bureaucracies defending their corners, too many points of demarcation, insufficient centralized control.”

418. “And this was to be his main point – there was one overriding reason for our failure, which was the lack of coordinated intelligence. Too many agencies, too many bureaucracies defending their corners, too many points of demarcation, insufficient centralized control.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Rationalism is a blind faith.”

419. “Rationalism is a blind faith.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “To step down there now as if completely free, to be released from the arduous states of play of psychological condition, to have leisure to be open and attentive to perception, to the world whose breathtaking, incessant cascade against the senses was so easily and habitually ignored, dinned out, in the interests of unexamined ideals of personal responsibility, efficiency, citizenship, to step down there now, just walk away, melt into the shadow, would be so very easy.”

420. “To step down there now as if completely free, to be released from the arduous states of play of psychological condition, to have leisure to be open and attentive to perception, to the world whose breathtaking, incessant cascade against the senses was so easily and habitually ignored, dinned out, in the interests of unexamined ideals of personal responsibility, efficiency, citizenship, to step down there now, just walk away, melt into the shadow, would be so very easy.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Old Europa tosses in her dreams. She wants to help but she doesn’t want to share or lose what she has.”

421. “Old Europa tosses in her dreams. She wants to help but she doesn’t want to share or lose what she has.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “They would also need to talk sense to her. The almost-existing children, the husky-voiced daughter, a museum curator perhaps, and the gifted, less settled son, good at too many things, who failed to complete his university course, but a far better pianist than she. Both always affectionate, brilliant at Christmases and summer-holiday castles and entertaining their youngest relations.”

422. “They would also need to talk sense to her. The almost-existing children, the husky-voiced daughter, a museum curator perhaps, and the gifted, less settled son, good at too many things, who failed to complete his university course, but a far better pianist than she. Both always affectionate, brilliant at Christmases and summer-holiday castles and entertaining their youngest relations.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “I’d made a reckless decision, but I was encouraged by reports that Sir Alan Turing, war hero and presiding genius of the digital age, had taken delivery of the same model.”

423. “I’d made a reckless decision, but I was encouraged by reports that Sir Alan Turing, war hero and presiding genius of the digital age, had taken delivery of the same model.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Raised bookless on computer toys, sugar, fat and smacks to the head.”

424. “Raised bookless on computer toys, sugar, fat and smacks to the head.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Poles whom I instinctively admired urged me to support the very Western politicians I most distrusted, and a language of anti-communism – which until then I had associated with cranky ideologues of the right – came easily to everyone here where Communism was a network of privileges and corruption and licensed violence, a mental disease, an array of laughable, improbable lies and, most tangibly, the instrument of occupation by a foreign power.”

425. “Poles whom I instinctively admired urged me to support the very Western politicians I most distrusted, and a language of anti-communism – which until then I had associated with cranky ideologues of the right – came easily to everyone here where Communism was a network of privileges and corruption and licensed violence, a mental disease, an array of laughable, improbable lies and, most tangibly, the instrument of occupation by a foreign power.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “In her uncomfortable position, his mother cocked her head on one side as she prepared to listen. It was a habit Stephen himself had adopted. He could see their faces, the lined expressions of tenderness and anxiety. It was the aging, the essential selves enduring while the bodies withered away. He felt the urgency of contracting time, of unfinished business. There were conversations he had not yet had with them and for which he had always thought there would be time.”

426. “In her uncomfortable position, his mother cocked her head on one side as she prepared to listen. It was a habit Stephen himself had adopted. He could see their faces, the lined expressions of tenderness and anxiety. It was the aging, the essential selves enduring while the bodies withered away. He felt the urgency of contracting time, of unfinished business. There were conversations he had not yet had with them and for which he had always thought there would be time.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “And he saw the studio he was about to abandon for his bed as it might have appeared in a documentary film about himself that would reveal to a curious world how a masterpiece was born.”

427. “And he saw the studio he was about to abandon for his bed as it might have appeared in a documentary film about himself that would reveal to a curious world how a masterpiece was born.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “That naked childlike surrender, before she rose to assume an adult’s armour, seemed first thing this morning like a essential from which she was banished.”

428. “That naked childlike surrender, before she rose to assume an adult’s armour, seemed first thing this morning like a essential from which she was banished.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “He leaves behind in the library a field of resonating sadness, an imagined shape, a disappointed hologram still in possession of his chair.”

429. “He leaves behind in the library a field of resonating sadness, an imagined shape, a disappointed hologram still in possession of his chair.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Whose repeated remarks are a witless, thrustless dribble, whose impoverished sentences die like motherless chicks, cheaply fading.”

430. “Whose repeated remarks are a witless, thrustless dribble, whose impoverished sentences die like motherless chicks, cheaply fading.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “My opinion,” he said, “is that the haiku is the literary form of the future.”

431. “My opinion,” he said, “is that the haiku is the literary form of the future.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “How would that constitute an ending? What service or hope or satisfaction could a reader draw from such an account? Who would want to believe that, except in the service of the bleakest realism? I couldn’t do it to them. I’m too old, too frightened, too much in love with the shred of the life I have remaining. I no longer possess the lavage of my pessimism. When I am dead, and the Marshall’s are dead, we will exist as my inventions.”

432. “How would that constitute an ending? What service or hope or satisfaction could a reader draw from such an account? Who would want to believe that, except in the service of the bleakest realism? I couldn’t do it to them. I’m too old, too frightened, too much in love with the shred of the life I have remaining. I no longer possess the lavage of my pessimism. When I am dead, and the Marshall’s are dead, we will exist as my inventions.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Any five-year-old girl – though boys would do – gave substance to her continued.”

433. “Any five-year-old girl – though boys would do – gave substance to her continued.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Without a specific destination, the visitors chose routes as they might choose a colour.”

434. “Without a specific destination, the visitors chose routes as they might choose a colour.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “The reason he wouldn’t be drawn into political or even theological debate was that he was indifferent to other people’s opinions and felt no urge to engage with or oppose them.”

435. “The reason he wouldn’t be drawn into political or even theological debate was that he was indifferent to other people’s opinions and felt no urge to engage with or oppose them.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “He was a lovely boy who was a long way from his family and he was about to die.”

436. “He was a lovely boy who was a long way from his family and he was about to die.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Instead, dull to the point of brilliance, vapid beyond invention, his banality as finely wrought as the arabesques of the Blue Mosque.”

437. “Instead, dull to the point of brilliance, vapid beyond invention, his banality as finely wrought as the arabesques of the Blue Mosque.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “The journal preserved her dignity; she might look and behave like and live the life of a trained nurse, but she was really an important writer in disguise. And at a time when she was cut off from everything she knew – family, home, friends – writing was the thread of continuity. It was what she had always done.”

438. “The journal preserved her dignity; she might look and behave like and live the life of a trained nurse, but she was really an important writer in disguise. And at a time when she was cut off from everything she knew – family, home, friends – writing was the thread of continuity. It was what she had always done.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Her attention remained divided between the page in her hand and, fifty feet away, the closed bedroom door.”

439. “Her attention remained divided between the page in her hand and, fifty feet away, the closed bedroom door.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “He suspected he had brushed against a fundamental law of the universe: such ecstasy must compromise his freedom. That was its price.”

440. “He suspected he had brushed against a fundamental law of the universe: such ecstasy must compromise his freedom. That was its price.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “She was on course now, and had found satisfaction on other levels; writing stories not only involved secrecy, it also gave her all the pleadures of miniaturization. A world could be made in five pages and one that was more pleasing than a model farm. The childhood of a spoiled prince could be framed with half a page a moonlit dash through sleepy villages was one rhythmically emphatic sentence, falling in love could be achieved in a single word – a glance.”

441. “She was on course now, and had found satisfaction on other levels; writing stories not only involved secrecy, it also gave her all the pleadures of miniaturization. A world could be made in five pages and one that was more pleasing than a model farm. The childhood of a spoiled prince could be framed with half a page a moonlit dash through sleepy villages was one rhythmically emphatic sentence, falling in love could be achieved in a single word – a glance.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “The phrase was “in two places at once,” and the memory was of early morning.”

442. “The phrase was “in two places at once,” and the memory was of early morning.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “It is difficult to step outside the moment on any given day and ask the unnecessary, essential question, or to realize that however familiar, parents are also strangers to their children.”

443. “It is difficult to step outside the moment on any given day and ask the unnecessary, essential question, or to realize that however familiar, parents are also strangers to their children.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “At last he could admit to himself that he had never met anyone he loved as much, that he had never found anyone, man or woman, who matched her seriousness.”

444. “At last he could admit to himself that he had never met anyone he loved as much, that he had never found anyone, man or woman, who matched her seriousness.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Briony era una di quelle bambine possedute dal desiderio che al mondo fosse tutto assolutamente perfetto.”

445. “Briony era una di quelle bambine possedute dal desiderio che al mondo fosse tutto assolutamente perfetto.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “Surely, there was grandeur in experiment.”

446. “Surely, there was grandeur in experiment.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “To kill the brain is to kill the will to kill the brain.”

447. “To kill the brain is to kill the will to kill the brain.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “God was once supposed to be a grown-up, but in disputes He childishly took sides.”

448. “God was once supposed to be a grown-up, but in disputes He childishly took sides.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “He tilted back his chair and surveyed his desk as one might a life.”

449. “He tilted back his chair and surveyed his desk as one might a life.”

Ian McEwan Quote: “But the crowded recent past can be difficult to recall.”

450. “But the crowded recent past can be difficult to recall.”

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