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7927b96
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How often do we tell our own life story? How often do we adjust, embellish, make sly cuts? And the longer life goes on, the fewer are those around to challenge our account, to remind us that our life is not our life, merely the story we have told about our life. Told to others, but - mainly - to ourselves. Dear
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Julian Barnes |
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31fecfb
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If the statistics of happiness depend on personal reporting, how can we be sure that anyone is as happy as they claim to be? What if they aren't telling the truth? No, we have to assume that they are, or at least that the testing system allows for lying. So the real question lay beneath: assuming that those canvassed by anthropologists and sociologists are reliable witnesses, then surely 'being happy' is the same as 'reporting yourself happ..
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Julian Barnes |
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8cc972d
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I didn't want to press Veronica. I thought I'd wait for her to get in touch this time. I checked my inbox rather too assiduously. Of course, I wasn't expecting a great effusion, but hoped, perhaps, for a polite message that it had been nice to see me properly after all these years. Well, perhaps it hadn't been. Perhaps she'd gone on a trip. Perhaps her server was down. Who said that thing about the eternal hopefulness of the human heart?
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Julian Barnes |
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7aed1c5
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My reading might be pointless in terms of the history of literary criticism; but it's not pointless in terms of pleasure.
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reading
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Julian Barnes |
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399afce
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He never married, and he never learned to dance. He was so resistant to dancing that most of the principal male characters in his novels take sympathetic action and refuse to dance as well.
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Julian Barnes |
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d8d613a
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The present looks back at some great figure of an earlier century and wonders, Was he on our side? Was he a goodie? What a lack of self-confidence this implies: the present wants both to patronise the past by adjudicating on its political acceptability, and also to be flattered by it, to be patted on the back and told to keep up the good work.
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present
self-confidence
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Julian Barnes |
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f201e11
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Belki de her turlu ortak motifi ortadan kaldiran keder daha da fazlasini ortadan kaldiriyor: ortak motiflerin var olduguna olan inanci.
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Julian Barnes |
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3f8ba74
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It strikes me that this may be one of the differences between youth and age: when we are young, we invent different futures for ourselves; when we are old,
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Julian Barnes |
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461d037
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Who can control how much they love? If you can control it, then it isn't love. I don't know what you call it instead, but it isn't love.
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Julian Barnes |
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d61a296
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When it comes to the dead, it is hard to retain, or posthumously acquire, treasuredom. Being a Great Writer in itself has little to do with the matter. The important factors are: 1) An ambassadorial quality, an ability to present the nation to itself, and represent it abroad, in a way it wishes to be presented and represented. 2) An element of malleability and interpretability. The malleability allows the writer to be given a more appealing..
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Julian Barnes |
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3e89ac0
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We all know objective truth is not obtainable, that when some event occurs we shall have a multiplicity of subjective truths which we assess and then fabulate into history, into some God-eyed version of what 'really' happened.
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Julian Barnes |
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ac6263f
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For instance: that when we are young and sensitive, we are also at our most hurtful; whereas when the blood begins to slow, when we feel less sharply, when we are more armoured and have learnt how to bear hurt, we tread more carefully.
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Julian Barnes |
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0073b09
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We were essentially taking the piss, except when we were serious. He was essentially serious, except when he was taking the piss. It took us a while to work this out.
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Julian Barnes |
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4d34dd5
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Dingen die eenmaal weg zijn, kunnen niet teruggehaald worden, dat wist hij nu wel. Een klap, eenmaal uitgedeeld, kan niet worden ingetrokken. Woorden, eenmaal uitgesproken, kunnen niet onuitgesproken worden gemaakt. We mogen verdergaan alsof er niets verloren, niets gedaan, niets gezegd is, we mogen beweren het allemaal te vergeten, maar ons diepste wezen vergeet niet, omdat we voor altijd veranderd zijn.
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relationships
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Julian Barnes |
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25390a8
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I can see there might be a positive side to this wilful averting of the eye: ignoring the bad things makes it easier for you to carry on. But ignoring the bad things makes you end up believing that bad things never happen. You are always surprised by them. It surprises you that guns kill, that money corrupts, that snow falls in winter. Such naivety can be charming; alas, it can also be perilous.
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Julian Barnes |
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d50f919
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trykhy khh bykh gwshmn shkhl mygyrd byd shfftryn trykh bshd w bynHl, bysh z hr chyz jy trdyd drd.
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Julian Barnes |
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dae11a1
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He was too clever. If you're that clever you can argue yourself into anything. You just leave common sense behind.
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Julian Barnes |
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29047f4
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Why go through that stuff all over again? Don't you know the rule: once bitten, twice bitten? But now, I found myself in revolt against my own ... what? Conventionality, lack of imagination,
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Julian Barnes |
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9d44e16
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La vida no es solo una suma y una resta. Es tambien la acumulacion, la multiplicacion de perdidas, de fracasos.
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Julian Barnes |
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39397f6
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Time ... give us enough time and our best-supported decisions will seem wobbly, our certainties whimsical.
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Julian Barnes |
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d409220
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Gustave's last years are arid and solitary. He
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Julian Barnes |
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233ea65
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Razumem da u tom svesnom skretanju pogleda moze biti i neceg pozitivnog: lakse je gurati dalje ako ne primecujete neprijatne stvari. Ali, ako ne primecujete neprijatne stvari, na kraju cete poverovati da do njih nikad i ne dolazi. Uvek vas iznenade.
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Julian Barnes |
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a8cfe5c
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Esta la cuestion de la soledad. Pero no es como te la imaginas (si alguna vez has intentado imaginarla). Hay dos tipos de soledad esenciales: la de quienes no han encontrado a nadie a quien amar, y la de quienes se han visto privados del ser amado. El primero es el peor. Nada es comparable a la soledad del alma en la adolescencia
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Julian Barnes |
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690abaa
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Rixte mia matia guro sas kai tha deite posous ekhei sakatepsei psukhologika e aple, kathemerine zoe.
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Julian Barnes |
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c56cea1
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Miss Fergusson had maintained, when they first stood before the haloed mountain, that there were two explanations of everything, that each required the exercise of faith, and that we had been given free will in order that we might choose between them. This dilemma was to preoccupy Miss Logan for years to come. 7
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Julian Barnes |
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1141d31
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She knew me better than anyone else in the world. And still wanted to have lunch with me. And let me go on and on about myself.
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Julian Barnes |
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0cc3567
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This is where we work, in the interstices of ignorance, the land of contradiction and silence, planning to convince you with the seemingly known, to resolve - or make usefully vivid - the contradiction, and to make the silence eloquent.
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understanding
writing
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Julian Barnes |
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c1591d4
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There was something a bit sinister about Noah's devotion to God; creepy, if you know what I mean.
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Julian Barnes |
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3007e72
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And then there is the question, on which so much depends, of how we react to the damage: whether we admit it or repress it, and how this affects our dealings with others. Some admit the damage, and try to mitigate it; some spend their lives trying to help others who are damaged; and then there are those whose main concern is to avoid further damage to themselves, at whatever cost. And those are the ones who are ruthless, and the ones to be ..
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Julian Barnes |
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9adbaa9
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God damn it, he was thinking, this dying business is difficult. They just won't let you get on with it, not on your own terms, anyway. You have to die on other people's terms, and that's a bore, love them as you might.
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Julian Barnes |
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cc7ba9b
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Ipak, nista tako ne moze da natera ljude da pametno misle kao dobra katastrofa.
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Julian Barnes |
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602ce07
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Jenze vzpominky, ktere nam nakonec zustanou, se prece pokazde neshoduji s tim, co jsme videli na vlastni oci.
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Julian Barnes |
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4cc4a8e
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Later on in life, you expect a bit of rest, don't you? You think you deserve it. I did, anyway. But then you begin to understand that the reward of merit is not life's business. Also, when you are young, you think you can predict the likely pains and bleaknesses that age might bring. You imagine yourself being lonely, divorced, widowed; children growing away from you, friends dying. You imagine the loss of status, the loss of desire--and de..
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Julian Barnes |
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f0fd618
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I tried to explain about refusing an unsought gift, about action versus passivity.
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Julian Barnes |
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a43341b
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the reward of merit is not life's business.
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Julian Barnes |
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a5e46ff
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Chi poteva sapere come l'avrebbe pensata, il futuro? Ci aspettiamo troppo dal domani, sperando che sappia contrastare l'oggi.
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futuro
oggi
tempo
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Julian Barnes |
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9a94dcc
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Does character develop over time? In novels, of course it does: otherwise there wouldn't be much of a story. But in life? I sometimes wonder. Our attitudes and opinions change, we develop new habits and eccentricities; but that's something different, more like decoration. Perhaps character resembles intelligence, except that character peaks a little later: between twenty and thirty, say. And after that, we're just stuck with what we've got.
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Julian Barnes |
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649b07d
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I survived. "He survived to tell the tale"--that's what people say, don't they? History isn't the lies of the victors, as I once glibly assured Old Joe Hunt; I know that now. It's more the memories of the survivors, most of whom are neither victorious nor defeated."
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Julian Barnes |
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645e281
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This was one of the differences between the three of us and our new friend, We were essentially taking the piss, except when we were serious. He was essentially serious, except when he was taking the piss. It took us a while to work this out.
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Julian Barnes |
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8d78f53
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I think I have an instinct for survival, for self-preservation. Perhaps this is what Veronica called cowardice and I called being peaceable.
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Julian Barnes |
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c5635c7
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Je li ljubav ono sto ce od nas ostati? Bilo bi lepo tako misliti. Bilo bi utesno kada bi ljubav bila izvor energije koji i dalje tinja posle nase smrti. Na nekadasnjim televizijskim aparatima, kada ih iskljucite, ostajala je grumuljica svetlosti posred ekrana, koja se lagano smanjivala, od velicine srebrnjaka do trunke na izdisaju. Kao decko, posmatrao sam ovaj proces svake veceri, s neodredenom zeljom da ga obuzdam (videvsi ga, s mladalack..
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Julian Barnes |
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59d8888
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I certainly believe we all suffer damage, one way or another. How could we not, except in a world of perfect parents, siblings, neighbours, companions? And then there is the question, on which so much depends, of how we react to the damage: whether we admit it or repress it, and how this affects our dealings with others. Some admit the damage, and try to mitigate it; some spend their lives trying to help others who are damaged; and then the..
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Julian Barnes |
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3a10026
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Try as I could -which wasn't very hard- I rarely ended up fantasising a markedly different life from the one that has been mine. I don't this is complacency; it's more likely a lack of imagination, or ambition, or something. I suppose the truth is that, yes, I'm not odd enough not to have done the things I've ended up doing with my life.
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Julian Barnes |
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11d7f3e
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bzrgsly hm mnnd hmh tGyyrt sysy w trykhy st khh dyr y zwd myh nmydy m myshwd.
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Julian Barnes |