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Ian Mcewan

Ian Mcewan Quotes

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Famous Ian Mcewan Quotes

“There did not have to be a moral. She need only show separate minds, as alive as her own, struggling with the idea that other minds were equally alive. It wasn't only wickedness and scheming that made people unhappy, it was confusion and misunderstanding, above all, it was the failure to grasp the simple truth that other people are as real as you. And only in a story could you enter these different minds and show how they had an equal value. That was the only moral a story need have.”

PeopleNeedsMindMadeIdeasDifferentRealStoriesShowsValuesSimpleMoralStruggleAliveEqualUnhappyConfusionMisunderstandingWickednessSimple TruthsDifferent Minds
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“In a story you only had to wish, you only had to write it down and you could have the world...It seemed so obvious now that it was too late: a story was a form of telepathy. By means of inking symbols onto a page, she was able to send thoughts and feelings from her mind to her reader's. It was a magical process, so commonplace that no one stopped to wonder at it. Reading a sentence and understanding it were the same thing; as with the crooking of a finger, nothing lay between them. There was no gap during which the symbols were unraveled.”

WorldWritingMindMeanStoriesFeelingsAbleFormReadingWishProcessUnderstandingWonderReaderLatePagesDown AndLaysFingersObviousSentencesSymbolsToo LateGapsCommonplaceWish YouThoughts And FeelingsTelepathy
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“She 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 was like a wave breaking. If she could only find herself at the crest, she thought, she might find the secret of herself, that part of her that was really in charge. She brought her forefinger closer to her face and stared at it, urging it to move. It remained still because she was pretending... . And when she did crook it finally, the action seemed to start in the finger itself, not in some part of her mind.”

IfsMindStillsMomentsMightActionFacesMovingSecretMysteryEffectsMovedIntentionFingersWaveInstantPretendingBentDividingCrooksWaves Breaking
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“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
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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
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