Ian McewanWhen there are no consequences, being wrong is simply a diversion.372Time
Ian McewanI don't believe there's any inherent darkness at the center of religion at all. I think religion actually is a morally neutral force.361Thought
Ian McewanNo emergency was ever dealt with effectively by democratic process.351Truth
Ian McewanFind you, love you, marry you, and live without shame. ✨ Christopher Hampton, Ian McEwan (2008). Atonement: The Shooting Script, Newmarket Press373Love
Ian McewanWhen anything can happen, everything matters.374Life
Ian Mcewanwas it possible that i was, in the modern term, in denial? ✨ Ian McEwan (2010). Atonement, p.361, Random House352Life
Ian McewanIt is photography itself that creates the illusion of innocence. Its ironies of frozen narrative lend to its subjects an apparent unawareness that they will change or die. It is t… ▶374DeathHopeThought
Ian McewanNo one knows anything, really. It's all rented, or borrowed.342Death
Ian McewanIt 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?375LoveTime
Ian McewanWithout a revolution of the inner life, however slow, all our big designs are worthless. The work we have to do is with ourselves if we're ever going to be at peace with each othe… ▶353HumanityLifeReading
Ian McewanCecilia wondered, as she sometimes did when she met a man for the first time, if this was the one she was going to marry, and whether it was this particular moment she would remem… ▶364LifeReadingTime
Ian McewanScientists 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 playi… ▶342Thought
Ian McewanObserving human variety can give pleasure, but so too can human sameness.375Humanity
Ian McewanShe returned his gaze, struck by the sense of her own transformation, and overwhelmed by the beauty which a lifetime havit had taught her to ignore.332LifeTime
Ian McewanLet his name be cleared and everyone else adjust their thinking. He had put in time, now they must do the work. His business was simple. Find Cecilia and love her, marry her and l… ▶376LoveThoughtTime
Ian McewanGirls can wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it's okay to be a boy; for girls it's like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degradin… ▶365Thought
Ian McewanSelf-consciousness is the destroyer of erotic joy. ✨ Ian McEwan (2010). Enduring Love, p.102, Random House311Love
Ian McewanAll this happiness on display is suspect... If they think - and they could be right - that continued torture and summary executions, ethnic cleansing and occasional genocide are p… ▶378Thought
Ian McewanIt was not generally realized that what children mostly wanted was to be left alone.335Truth
Ian McewanIn Leon's account of his life, no-one was mean-spirited, no-one schemed or lied or betrayed; everyone was celebrated at least in some degree... Leon turned out to be a spineless, … ▶335Life
Ian McewanAnd she did not miss his presence so much as his voice on the phone. Even being lied to constantly, though hardly like love, was sustained attention; he must care about her to fab… ▶324LoveTime
Ian McewanFrom 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 tor… ▶324Reading
Ian McewanShe would simply wait on the bridge, calm and obstinate, until events, real events, not her own fantasies, roe to her challenge, and dispelled her insignificance.324Hope
Ian McewanIt was thought, perception, sensations that interested her, the conscious mind as a river through time, and how to represent its onward roll, as well as all the tributaries that w… ▶368ThoughtTime
Ian McewanI often don't read reviews.291Reading
Ian McewanThe end of secrecy would be the end of the novel - especially the English novel. The English novel requires social secrecy, personal secrecy.346Reading
Ian McewanThere are these rare moments when musicians together touch something sweeter than they've ever found before in rehearsals or performance, beyond the merely collaborative or techni… ▶303LoveTime
Ian McewanBut how to do feelings? All very well to write She felt sad, or describe what a sad person might do, but what of sadness itself, how was that put across so it could be felt in all… ▶314Sadness
Ian McewanWhat idiocy, to racing into this story and its labyrinths, sprinting away from our happiness among the fresh spring grasses by the oak. ✨ Ian McEwan (2010). Enduring Love, p… ▶292Love
Ian McewanShe bent her finger and then straightened it. The mystery was in the instant before it moved, the dividing moment between not moving and moving, when her intention took effect. It… ▶336ThoughtTime
