Julian Barnes - Writer Quotes

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Why does the writing make us chase the writer? Why can't we leave well enough alone? Why aren't the books enough?

Julian Barnes
The best life for a writer is the life which helps him write the best books he can.

Julian Barnes
The writer has little control over personal temperament, none over historical moment, and is only partly in charge of his or her own aesthetic.

Julian Barnes
The writer must be universal in sympathy and an outcast by nature: only then can he see clearly.

Julian Barnes
What is the easiest, the most comfortable thing for a writer to do? To congratulate the society in which he lives: to admire its biceps, applaud its progress, tease it endearingly about its follies.

Julian Barnes
It's easy, after all, not to be a writer. Most people aren't writers, and very little harm comes to them.

Julian Barnes
In Britain I'm sometimes regarded as a suspiciously Europeanized writer, who has this rather dubious French influence.

Julian Barnes
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
Writers of either gender ought to be able to do the opposite sex-that's one basic test of competence, after all.

Julian Barnes