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Ian Mcewan

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Famous Ian Mcewan Quotes

“We knew so little about eachother. We lay mostly submerged, like ice floes with our visible social selves projecting only cool and white. Here was a rare sight below the waves, of a man's privacy and turmoil, of his dignity upended by the overpowering necessity of pure fantasy, pure thought, by the irreducible human element - Mind.”

MenMindHumansLittlesSelfSocialWhiteFantasyPureElementsDignitySightLaysWaveIceVisiblePrivacyTurmoilSubmergedOverpowering
Author:Ian Mcewan
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“When he thought of her, it rather amazed him, that he had let that girl with her violin go. Now, of course, he saw that her self-effacing proposal was quite irrelevant. All she had needed was the certainty of his love, and his reassurance that there was no hurry when a lifetime lay ahead of them. Love and patience- if only he had had them both at once- would surely have seen them both through.”

IfsSelfGirlCoursesSawsNeededLaysLifetimeCertaintyAmazedIrrelevantHis LoveProposalViolinThat GirlReassurancePatience And Love
Author:Ian Mcewan
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“When we go on about the big things, the political situation, global warming, world poverty, it all looks really terrible, with nothing getting better, nothing to look forward to. But when I think small, closer in - you know, a girl I've just met, or this song we're going to do with Chas, or snowboarding next month, then it looks great. So this is going to be my motto - think small.”

ThinkingKnowsWorldLooksBigsPoliticalSongGirlNextSituationPovertyMonthsGoes OnTerribleMetsGet BetterGlobal WarmingMottoBig ThingsMy MottoSnowboardingWorld Poverty
Author:Ian Mcewan
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“This commonplace cycle of falling asleep and waking, in darkness, under private cover, with another creature, a pale soft tender mammal, putting faces together in a ritual of affection, briefly settled in the eternal necessities of warmth, comfort, safety, crossing limbs to draw nearer - a simple daily consolation, almost too obvious, easy to forget by daylight.”

TogetherFacesFallEasySimpleForgetDarknessComfortCreaturesEternalDrawsSafetyAffectionObviousCyclesRitualWarmthWakingPaleConsolationLimbsCommonplaceCrossingsDaylightMammalsFalling Asleep
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“Had it taken her this long to discover that she lacked some simple mental trick that everyone else had, a mechanism so ordinary that no one ever mentioned it, an immediate sensual connection to people and events, and to her own needs and desires? All these years she had lived in isolation within herself and, strangely, from herself, never wanting or daring to look back.”

PeopleNeedsYearsLooksLongDesireSimpleTakenEventsOrdinaryConnectionsTricksSensualIsolationMechanismDaring
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“In a language as idiomatically stressed as English, opportunities for misreadings are bound to arise. By a mere backward movement of stress, a verb can become a noun, an act a thing. To refuse, to insist on saying no to what you believe is wrong, becomes at a stroke refuse, an insurmountable pile of garbage.”

BelieveOpportunityLanguageMovementStressMereBoundsRefuseAriseStrokesGarbageStressedSaying NoVerbsNounsInsurmountableMisreading
Book:Amsterdam
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“My needs were simple I didn't bother much with themes or felicitous phrases and skipped fine descriptions of weather, landscapes and interiors. I wanted characters I could believe in, and I wanted to be made curious about what was to happen to them. Generally, I preferred people to be falling in and out of love, but I didn't mind so much if they tried their hand at something else. It was vulgar to want it, but I liked someone to say 'Marry me' by the end.”

PeopleIfsWantNeedsMindBelieveMadeEndsCharacterHandsHappensWantedFallSimpleFineWeatherCuriousLandscapeBotherPhrasesThemeDescriptionInteriorsVulgarMarry MeSweet Tooth
Author:Ian Mcewan
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