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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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“Finally he spoke the three simple words that no amount of bad art or bad faith can every quite cheapen. She repeated them, with exactly the same slight emphasis on the second word, as though she were the one to say them first. He had no religious belief, but it was impossible not to think of an invisible presence or witness in the room, and that these words spoken aloud were like signatures on an unseen contract.”

ThinkingFirstsArtThreeBeliefReligiousSimpleRoomsImpossibleAmountInvisibleWitnessSpokesContractsUnseenEmphasisSignaturesReligious BeliefSimple Words
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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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“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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