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Top 400 Julian Barnes Quotes (2026 Update)
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Julian Barnes Quote: “Ah, the rheumy-eyed grandpa on the terraces inducting the lad into the mysteries of soccer: how to loathe people wearing different coloured shirts, how to feign injury, how to blow your snot onto the pitch – See, son, you press hard on one nostril to close it, and explode the green stuff out of the other. How to be vain and overpaid and have your best years behind you before you’ve even understood what life’s about. Oh yes, I look forward to taking Lucas to the football. But.”

251. “Ah, the rheumy-eyed grandpa on the terraces inducting the lad into the mysteries of soccer: how to loathe people wearing different coloured shirts, how to feign injury, how to blow your snot onto the pitch – See, son, you press hard on one nostril to close it, and explode the green stuff out of the other. How to be vain and overpaid and have your best years behind you before you’ve even understood what life’s about. Oh yes, I look forward to taking Lucas to the football. But.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “People in love, it is well known, suffer extreme conceptual delusions, the most common of these being that other people find your condition as thrilling and eye-watering as you do yourselves.”

252. “People in love, it is well known, suffer extreme conceptual delusions, the most common of these being that other people find your condition as thrilling and eye-watering as you do yourselves.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “I still buy books faster than I can read them. But again, this feels completely normal: how weird it would be to have around you only as many books as you have time to read in the rest of your life.”

253. “I still buy books faster than I can read them. But again, this feels completely normal: how weird it would be to have around you only as many books as you have time to read in the rest of your life.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “I remember what Old Joe Hun said when arguing with Adrian: that mental states can be inferred from actions. That’s in history – Henry VIII and all that. Whereas in the private life, I think the converse is true: that you can infer past actions from current mental states.”

254. “I remember what Old Joe Hun said when arguing with Adrian: that mental states can be inferred from actions. That’s in history – Henry VIII and all that. Whereas in the private life, I think the converse is true: that you can infer past actions from current mental states.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “The one thing that is very good in life today is death.”

255. “The one thing that is very good in life today is death.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “And by that time he had made the most terrifying discovery of his life, one which probably cast a shadow over all his subsequent relationships: the realization that most love, even the most ardent and the most sincere, can, given the correct assault, curdle into a mixture of pity and anger.”

256. “And by that time he had made the most terrifying discovery of his life, one which probably cast a shadow over all his subsequent relationships: the realization that most love, even the most ardent and the most sincere, can, given the correct assault, curdle into a mixture of pity and anger.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “There will always be non-readers, bad readers, lazy readers – there always were.”

257. “There will always be non-readers, bad readers, lazy readers – there always were.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “At a social event she and I would normally have attended together, an acquaintance came up and said to me, simply, “There’s someone missing.” That felt correct, in both senses.”

258. “At a social event she and I would normally have attended together, an acquaintance came up and said to me, simply, “There’s someone missing.” That felt correct, in both senses.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “Sleep democratizes fear. The terror of a lost shoe or a missed train are as great here as those of guerrilla attack or nuclear war.”

259. “Sleep democratizes fear. The terror of a lost shoe or a missed train are as great here as those of guerrilla attack or nuclear war.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “Perhaps this was one of the tragedies life plots for us: it is our destiny to become in old age what in youth we would have most despised.”

260. “Perhaps this was one of the tragedies life plots for us: it is our destiny to become in old age what in youth we would have most despised.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “I swiftly realised how grief sorts out and realigns those around the griefstruck; how friends are tested; how some pass, some fail. Old friendships may deepen through shared sorrow; or suddenly appear lightweight.”

261. “I swiftly realised how grief sorts out and realigns those around the griefstruck; how friends are tested; how some pass, some fail. Old friendships may deepen through shared sorrow; or suddenly appear lightweight.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “You might even ask me to apply my ‘theory’ to myself and explain what damage I had suffered a long way back and what its consequences might be: for instance, how it might affect my reliability and truthfulness. I’m not sure I could answer this, to be honest.”

262. “You might even ask me to apply my ‘theory’ to myself and explain what damage I had suffered a long way back and what its consequences might be: for instance, how it might affect my reliability and truthfulness. I’m not sure I could answer this, to be honest.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “In 1980, I published my first novel, in the usual swirl of unjustified hope and justified anxiety.”

263. “In 1980, I published my first novel, in the usual swirl of unjustified hope and justified anxiety.”

— Julian Barnes

Featured in: Firsts Quotes

Julian Barnes Quote: “Rather, what happened to human illusions was that they crumbled, they withered away. It was a long and wearisome process, like a toothache reaching far into the soul. But you can pull out a tooth and it will be gone. Illusions, however, even when dead, continue to rot and stink within us. We cannot escape their taste and smell. We carry them around with us all the time.”

264. “Rather, what happened to human illusions was that they crumbled, they withered away. It was a long and wearisome process, like a toothache reaching far into the soul. But you can pull out a tooth and it will be gone. Illusions, however, even when dead, continue to rot and stink within us. We cannot escape their taste and smell. We carry them around with us all the time.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “Very few of my characters are based on people I’ve known. It is too constricting.”

265. “Very few of my characters are based on people I’ve known. It is too constricting.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “Work would be something I jogged along with; love would be my life.”

266. “Work would be something I jogged along with; love would be my life.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “If these are indeed the spirits of Englishmen and Englishwomen who have passed over into the next world, surely they would know how to form a proper queue?”

267. “If these are indeed the spirits of Englishmen and Englishwomen who have passed over into the next world, surely they would know how to form a proper queue?”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “I’m a complete democrat in terms of who buys my books.”

268. “I’m a complete democrat in terms of who buys my books.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “The sadness of life. That was another conundrum he would occasionally ponder.”

269. “The sadness of life. That was another conundrum he would occasionally ponder.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “But that’s one advantage of fiction, you can speed up time.”

270. “But that’s one advantage of fiction, you can speed up time.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “And he was not angry. But, before the pain set in, he had the time to be rueful. He had laid everything out, the best of himself, and it had not been enough. He had considered himself a bohemian, but she had proved too bohemian for him. And he had failed to understand her explanation of herself.”

271. “And he was not angry. But, before the pain set in, he had the time to be rueful. He had laid everything out, the best of himself, and it had not been enough. He had considered himself a bohemian, but she had proved too bohemian for him. And he had failed to understand her explanation of herself.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “Compliments of the season to you, and may the acid rain fall on your joint and anointed heads.”

272. “Compliments of the season to you, and may the acid rain fall on your joint and anointed heads.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “The more so because, among its repetitions, it is always looking for new ways to prick you.”

273. “The more so because, among its repetitions, it is always looking for new ways to prick you.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “My philosopher friend, who gazed on life and decided that any responsible, thinking individual should have the right to reject this gift that had never been asked for – and whose noble gesture reemphasised with each passing decade the compromise and littleness that most lives consist of. ‘Most lives’: my life.”

274. “My philosopher friend, who gazed on life and decided that any responsible, thinking individual should have the right to reject this gift that had never been asked for – and whose noble gesture reemphasised with each passing decade the compromise and littleness that most lives consist of. ‘Most lives’: my life.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “The law, and society, and religion all said it was impossible to be sane, healthy, and kill yourself.”

275. “The law, and society, and religion all said it was impossible to be sane, healthy, and kill yourself.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “For Montaigne, the death of youth, which so often takes place unnoticed is the harder death; what we habitually refer to as ‘death’ is no more than the death of old age... The leap from the attenuated survival of senescence into nonexistence is much easier than the sly transition from heedless youth crabbed and regretful age.”

276. “For Montaigne, the death of youth, which so often takes place unnoticed is the harder death; what we habitually refer to as ‘death’ is no more than the death of old age... The leap from the attenuated survival of senescence into nonexistence is much easier than the sly transition from heedless youth crabbed and regretful age.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “I think there’s a different authenticity to memory, and not an inferior one. Memory sorts and sifts according to the demands made on it by the rememberer.”

277. “I think there’s a different authenticity to memory, and not an inferior one. Memory sorts and sifts according to the demands made on it by the rememberer.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “Cheer up! Death is round the corner.”

278. “Cheer up! Death is round the corner.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “But he was a connoisseur of the if-only, and so they did travel. They travelled in the past-conditional.”

279. “But he was a connoisseur of the if-only, and so they did travel. They travelled in the past-conditional.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “This ought to have given him a whole storetank of existential rage, but somehow it didn’t;.”

280. “This ought to have given him a whole storetank of existential rage, but somehow it didn’t;.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “To be Russian was to be pessimistic; to be Soviet was to be optimistic.”

281. “To be Russian was to be pessimistic; to be Soviet was to be optimistic.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “They didn’t want you to fake adherence to their banal taste and meaningless critical slogans – they wanted you actually to believe in them.”

282. “They didn’t want you to fake adherence to their banal taste and meaningless critical slogans – they wanted you actually to believe in them.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “Film-makers and actors can only show a version of the act, but writers can express what people are thinking, feeling, as well as doing.”

283. “Film-makers and actors can only show a version of the act, but writers can express what people are thinking, feeling, as well as doing.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “I certainly believe we all suffer damage, one way or another. How could we not, except in a world of perfect parents, siblings, neighbours, companions?”

284. “I certainly believe we all suffer damage, one way or another. How could we not, except in a world of perfect parents, siblings, neighbours, companions?”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “So now, contended indifference before Middlesbrough against Slovan Bratislava coexisted with a craving for an art in which violent, overwhelming, hysterical and destructive emotion was the norm.”

285. “So now, contended indifference before Middlesbrough against Slovan Bratislava coexisted with a craving for an art in which violent, overwhelming, hysterical and destructive emotion was the norm.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “But if you’re very clever, I think there’s something that can unhinge you if you’re not careful.”

286. “But if you’re very clever, I think there’s something that can unhinge you if you’re not careful.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “In truth, he was just another man, behaving as men did in books, and she was just another woman for believing otherwise.”

287. “In truth, he was just another man, behaving as men did in books, and she was just another woman for believing otherwise.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “Lovers are like Siamese twins, two bodies with a single soul; but if one dies before the other, the survivor has a corpse to lug around.”

288. “Lovers are like Siamese twins, two bodies with a single soul; but if one dies before the other, the survivor has a corpse to lug around.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “Altitude reduces all things to their relative proportions, and to the truth. Cares, remorse, disgust become strangers: How easily indifference, contempt, forgetfulness drop away... and forgiveness descends.”

289. “Altitude reduces all things to their relative proportions, and to the truth. Cares, remorse, disgust become strangers: How easily indifference, contempt, forgetfulness drop away... and forgiveness descends.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “We didn’t do anger in my family. We did ironic comment, snappy rejoinder, satirical elaboration; we did exact words forbidding a certain action, and more severe ones condemning what had already taken place. But for anything beyond this, we did the thing enjoined upon the English middle classes for generations. We internalised our rage, our anger, our contempt. We spoke words under our breath.”

290. “We didn’t do anger in my family. We did ironic comment, snappy rejoinder, satirical elaboration; we did exact words forbidding a certain action, and more severe ones condemning what had already taken place. But for anything beyond this, we did the thing enjoined upon the English middle classes for generations. We internalised our rage, our anger, our contempt. We spoke words under our breath.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “What did I care about saving the world if the world couldn’t, wouldn’t, save her?”

291. “What did I care about saving the world if the world couldn’t, wouldn’t, save her?”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “I thought of writing books myself once. I had the ideas; I even made notes. But I was a doctor, married with children. You can only do one thing well: Flaubert knew that.”

292. “I thought of writing books myself once. I had the ideas; I even made notes. But I was a doctor, married with children. You can only do one thing well: Flaubert knew that.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “Posterity will jump to conclusions: that is its nature.”

293. “Posterity will jump to conclusions: that is its nature.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “Truth to life, at the start, to be sure; yet once the process gets under way, truth to art is the greater allegiance.”

294. “Truth to life, at the start, to be sure; yet once the process gets under way, truth to art is the greater allegiance.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “Is any novelist going to recognize the moment when he or she has nothing more to say? It is a brave thing to admit. And since as a professional writer you are full of anxiety anyway, you could easily misread the signs.”

295. “Is any novelist going to recognize the moment when he or she has nothing more to say? It is a brave thing to admit. And since as a professional writer you are full of anxiety anyway, you could easily misread the signs.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “Though always frank, the novelist was never wholly sincere.”

296. “Though always frank, the novelist was never wholly sincere.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “To die from ‘a draining away of one’s strength caused by extreme old age’ was in Montaigne’s day a ‘rare, singular and extraordinary death.’ Nowadays we assume it as our right.”

297. “To die from ‘a draining away of one’s strength caused by extreme old age’ was in Montaigne’s day a ‘rare, singular and extraordinary death.’ Nowadays we assume it as our right.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “The way, the truth and the life. You go on your way through life telling the truth.”

298. “The way, the truth and the life. You go on your way through life telling the truth.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “Style is a function of theme. Style is not imposed on subject-matter, but arises from it. Style is truth to thought.”

299. “Style is a function of theme. Style is not imposed on subject-matter, but arises from it. Style is truth to thought.”

— Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes Quote: “So, you see, we’re a played-out generation. All the best ones went. We were left with the lesser ones. It’s always like that in war. That’s why it’s up to your generation now.’ But I don’t feel part.”

300. “So, you see, we’re a played-out generation. All the best ones went. We were left with the lesser ones. It’s always like that in war. That’s why it’s up to your generation now.’ But I don’t feel part.”

— Julian Barnes

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