"I don't believe in God, but I miss him." ~ Jul…

"Books say: She did this because. Life says: She did this. Books are where things are explained to you; life is where things aren't. I'm not surprised some people prefer books."
~ Julian Barnes

"To be stupid, and selfish, and to have good health are the three requirements for happiness."
~ Julian Barnes

"Some admit the damage,and try to mitigate it;some spend their lives trying to help others who are damaged;and there are those whose main concern is to avoid further damage to themselves,at whatever cost. And those are the ones who are ruthless, and the ones to be careful of." JB

"In life, every ending is just the start of another story."
~ Julian Barnes

"When you read a great book, you don’t escape from life, you plunge deeper into it. There may be a superficial escape-into different countries, mores...- but what you are essentially doing is furthering your understanding of life’s subtleties, paradoxes, joys, pains and truths...

... Reading and life are not separate but symbiotic."
~ Julian Barnes

"Reading is a majority skill but a minority art."
~ Julian Barnes

"The greatest patriotism is to tell your country when it is behaving dishonorably, foolishly, viciously."
~ Julian Barnes

"But life never lets you go, does it? You can't put down life the way you put down a book."
~ Julian Barnes

"Does character develop over time?...Our attitudes and opinions change,we develop new habits and eccentricities;but that's something different, more like decoration...we're just stuck with what we've got.We're on our own...that would explain a lot of lives...And...our tragedy."JB

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

"..books look as if they contain knowledge, while e-readers look as if they contain information."
~ Julian Barnes

"History is the lies of the victors."
~ Julian Barnes

"You put together two people who have not been put together before;and sometimes the world is changed...Together,in that first exaltation,that first roaring sense of uplift, they are greater than their two separate selves. Together, they see further,and they see more clearly." JB

"You grew old first not in your own eyes, but in other people's eyes; then, slowly, you agreed with their opinion of you."
~ Julian Barnes

"Love may not lead where we think or hope, but regardless of outcome it should be a call to seriousness and truth. If it is not that - if it is not moral in its effect - then love is no more than an exaggerated form of pleasure."
~ Julian Barnes

"the difference between how we perceive the world and what the world turns out to be. The difference is between the stories we tell others and the stories we tell ourselves. There is a wonderful Russian saying...He lies like an eyewitness. Which is very sly, clever and true." JB

"When you're young...you want your emotions to be like the ones you read about in books...Later, I think, you want them to do something milder, something more practical: you want them to support your life as it is and has become. You want them to tell you that things are OK." JB

"Because love is the meeting point of truth and magic. Truth, as in photography; magic, as in ballooning."
~ Julian Barnes

"The companionship of dead writers is a wonderful form of live friendship."
~ Julian Barnes

Julian Barnes won the Man Booker Prize for his book The Sense of an Ending (2011), and three of his earlier books had been shortlisted for the Booker Prize: Flaubert's Parrot (1984), England, England (1998),and Arthur & George (2005). He has also written essays and short stories.

In 2004 Barnes 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.