Ian McEwan

English novelist and screenwriter

Lived from: 1948-

Category: Writers (Contemporary)

Quotes: Ian McEwan

Quotes 1 till 15 of 17.

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Ian McEwan

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A person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn and not easily mended.
Source: Atonement (2001)
Ian Mcewan

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By concentrating on what is good in people, by appealing to their idealism and their sense of justice, and by asking them to put their faith in the future, socialists put themselves at a severe disadvantage.
Ian Mcewan

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By measuring individual human worth, the novelist reveals the full enormity of the State's crime when it sets out to crush that individuality.
Ian McEwan

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He who hesitates is not only lost, but miles from the next exit.
Ian McEwan

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I want to live in a place where strangers rush to help someone in distress.
Ian McEwan

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Imagining what it is like to be someone other than yourself is at the core of our humanity. It is the essence of compassion, and it is the beginning of morality.
Ian Mcewan

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It is not the first duty of the novelist to provide blueprints for insurrection, or uplifting tales of successful resistance for the benefit of the opposition. The naming of what is there is what is important.
Ian McEwan

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Not being boring is quite a challenge.
Ian Mcewan

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One has to have the courage of one's pessimism.
Ian Mcewan

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Politics is the enemy of the imagination.
Ian McEwan

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Reading groups, readings, breakdowns of book sales all tell the same story: when women stop reading, the novel will be dead.
Ian McEwan

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Self-consciousness is the destroyer of erotic joy.
Source: Enduring Love (2010) 102
Ian McEwan

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The moment you lose curiosity in the world, you might as well be dead.
Ian McEwan

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The trouble with being a daydreamer who doesn’t say much is that the teachers at school, especially those who don’t know you very well, are likely to think you’re rather stupid. Or, if not stupid, then dull. No one can see the amazing things that are going on in your head.
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True intelligence requires fabulous imagination.