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Quote by John Banville

“The secret of survival is a defective imagination.”

Work

This novel delves into complex themes of fate, love, and the afterlife through a series of interconnected stories set in an alternate universe. more

Author

John Banville

John Banville, born on December 8, 1945, is an Irish novelist known for his unique narrative style and profound philosophical insights. His works have won numerous literary awards. more

“These days I must take the world in small and carefully measured doses. It is a sort of homeopathic cure I am undergoing, though I am not certain what this cure is meant to mend. Perhaps I am learning to live amongst the living again. Practising, I mean. But no, that is not it. Being here is just a way of not being anywhere.”

World Way Mean Certain Cures These Days Dose

Author:John Banville

“What is money, after all? Almost nothing, when one has a sufficiency of it.”

Sufficiency

Author:John Banville

“Dogs are dim creatures, do not speak to me of their good sense--have you ever heard of a team of tomcats hauling a sled across the frozen wastes?”

Speak Heard Team Dog Creatures Waste Frozen Good Sense

Author:John Banville

“I had never liked, even feared a little, this wild reach of marsh and mud flats where everything seemed turned away from the land, looking off desperately toward the horizon as if in mute search for a sign of rescue.”

Ifs Littles Land Flats Horizon Rescue Mud Mute Marshes

Book:The Sea

Source: The Sea

“The world is not real for me until it has been pushed through the mesh of language.”

World Has Beens Real Language Mesh

Author:John Banville

“I have never really got used to being on this earth. Sometimes I think our presence here is due to a cosmic blunder, that we were meant for another planet altogether, with other arrangements, and other laws, and other, grimmer skies. I try to imagine it, our true place, off on the far side of the galaxy, whirling and whirling. And the ones who were meant for here, are they out there, baffled and homesick, like us? No, they would have become extinct long ago. How could they survive, these gentle earthlings, in a world that was made to contain us.”

Thinking World Trying Long Made Sometimes Earth Law Used Sides Imagine Sky Planets Dues Gentle Cosmic Long Ago Arrangements Galaxy Blunders Homesick Baffled Far Side

Book:The Book of Evidence: Picador Classic

Source: The Book of Evidence: Picador Classic

“When we fall in love, we hope - both egotistically and altruistically - that we shall be finally, truly seen: judged and approved. Of course, love does not always bring approval: being seen may just as well lead to a thumbs-down and a season in hell.”

Wells May Doe Fall Courses Hell Seasons Down And Falling In Love Judged Approval Thumbs Approved Thumbs Down

Author:Julian Barnes

“Perhaps the world progresses not by maturing, but by being in a permanent state of adolescence, of thrilled discovery.”

World States Progress Discovery Permanent Mature Adolescence

Author:Julian Barnes

“This is what those who haven’t crossed the tropic of grief often fail to understand: the fact that someone is dead may mean that they are not alive, but doesn’t mean that they do not exist.”

May Mean Facts Grief Alive Failing Havens

Book:Levels of Life

Source: Levels of Life

“You put together two people who have not been put together before; and sometimes the world is changed, sometimes not. They may crash and burn, or burn and crash. But sometimes, something new is made, and then the world is changed. Together, in that first exaltation, that first roaring sense of uplift, they are greater than their two separate selves. Together, they see further, and they see more clearly.”

People World Firsts May Made Two Self Sometimes Together Greater Changed Uplifting Something New Crash Roaring Exaltation

Author:Julian Barnes

Quote by John Banville

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