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Ian Mcewan

Ian Mcewan Quotes

Novelist

Ian Mcewan is a renowned British novelist known for his unique narrative techniques and profound insights into human nature. His works often explore themes such as moral dilemmas, historical events, and personal identity. Born on June 21, 1948, Mcewan's representative works include 'Atonement', 'Freedom', and 'Amsterdam'.

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All Thinking Moments Ifs People Writing Self Way Littles Novel World Knows Men Might Mind Simple Stories Atonement Believe Children Love

Famous Ian Mcewan Quotes

“For children, childhood is timeless. It is always the present. Everything is in the present tense. Of course, they have memories. Of course, time shifts a little for them and Christmas comes round in the end. But they don't feel it. Today is what they feel, and when they say 'When I grow up,' there is always an edge of disbelief - how could they ever be other than what they are?”

Feels Children Littles Ends Today Courses Grows Memories Growing Up Childhood Rounds Edges Timeless Tense Disbelief Present Tense

Author:Ian Mcewan

“None of us really either know the circumstances of our death or are likely to exert as much control over it as we would like to, but we can certainly have a little more say in it if we are terminally ill than we have at the moment. That's the element of dignity, but sure, life is very hard to organise even when you are fit and healthy.”

Ifs Knows Littles Hard Moments Life Is Fit Circumstances Healthy Elements Dignity Ill Over It Terminally Ill

Author:Ian Mcewan

“I apologize for being obvious, but every time I watch the curtain come down on even a halfway decent production of a Shakespeare play I feel a little sorrowful that I'll never know the man, or any man of such warm intelligence.”

Knows Men Feels Littles Play Watches He Man Productions Obvious Warm Decent Apologizing Curtains Halfway I Apologize Sorrowful Shakespeare Play

Author:Ian Mcewan

“Oh, I've become immune to the Booker. I think we need something a little more like the Pulitzer prize, where there isn't this great race.”

Thinking Needs Littles Race Prize Immune Great Race

Author:Ian Mcewan

“The cost of oblivious daydreaming was always this moment of return, the realignment with what had been before and now seemed a little worse.”

Littles Moments Dream Return Cost Daydreaming Oblivious Before And Now

Book:Atonement

Source: Atonement

“It was common enough, to see so much death and want a child. Common, therefore human, and he wanted it all the more. When the wounded were screaming, you dreamed of sharing a little house somewhere, of an ordinary life, a family line, connection.”

Want Humans Children Littles Enough Wanted House Lines Common Ordinary Connections Wounded Ordinary Life

Author:Ian Mcewan

“The cost of oblivius daydreaming was always this moment of return, the realigment with what had been before and now seemed a little worse. Her reverie, once rich in plausible details, had become a passing silliness before the hard mass of the actual. It was difficult to come back.”

Littles Hard Moments Difficult Rich Return Cost Mass Details Passing Passings Daydreaming Atonement Plausible Reverie Silliness Before And Now

Book:Atonement

Source: Atonement

“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.”

Men Mind Humans Littles Self Social White Fantasy Pure Elements Dignity Sight Lays Wave Ice Visible Privacy Turmoil Submerged Overpowering

Author:Ian Mcewan

“The evasions of her little novel were exactly those of her life. Everything she did not wish to confront was also missing from her novella--and was necessary to it.”

Littles Wish Novel Missing Evasion

Book:Atonement

Source: Atonement

“We know so little about each other. We lie mostly submerged, like ice floes, with our visible social selves projecting only cool and white.”

Knows Littles Self Lying Social White Ice Visible Submerged

Book:Amsterdam, Or, The Spoiler: A Comi-tragedy

Source: Amsterdam, Or, The Spoiler: A Comi-tragedy

“It marked the beginning and, of course, an end. At that moment a chapter, no, a whole stage of my closed. Had I known, and had there been a spare second or two, I might have allowed myself a little nostalgia.”

Littles Two Ends Whole Moments Might Courses Known Stage Nostalgia That Moment Chapters Spares

Author:Ian Mcewan

“Writers are said to have superstitions and little rituals. Readers have them too.”

Littles Said Reader Ritual Superstitions

Author:Ian Mcewan

About the Author

Born: June 21, 1948
Known for: Novelist
Quotes: 286

Related Topics

Thinking Moments Ifs People Writing Self Way Littles Novel World Knows Men Might Mind Simple Stories Atonement Believe Children Love

Popular Topics

People Ifs Thinking Knows Men World Way Want Love Life Inspirational Needs Giving Feels Should Writing Trying Years Mind Firsts

Books & Sources

AtonementRelated source material

Enduring LoveRelated source material

SaturdayRelated source material

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AmsterdamRelated source material

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