The Lemon Table Quotes

“One feeling at least grows stronger in me with each year that passes—a longing to see the cranes. At this time of year I stand on a hill and watch the sky. Today they did not come. There were only wild geese. Geese would be beautiful if cranes did not exist.”
― Julian Barnes, The Lemon Table

“love might or might not promote kindness, gratify vanity, and clear the skin, but it did not lead to happiness; there was always an inequality of feeling or intention present. such was love's nature. of course, it 'worked' in the sense that it caused life's profoundest emotions, made him fresh as a spring's linden-blossom and broke him like a traitor on the wheel.”
― Julian Barnes, The Lemon Table

“But he was a connoisseur of the if-only, and so they did travel. They travelled in the past-conditional.”
― Julian Barnes, The Lemon Table

“The constant tug between nature and civilization is what keeps on our toes. Though of course, that did rather beg the question of how you defined nature and how you defined civilization.”
― Julian Barnes, The Lemon Table

“In truth, he was just another man, behaving as men did in books, and she was just another woman for believing otherwise.”
― Julian Barnes, The Lemon Table

“If I asked you “What is life?”, you would probably reply, in so many words, that it is all just a coincidence”
― Julian Barnes, The Lemon Table

“Life is just a premature
reaction to death.”
― Julian Barnes, The Lemon Table

“Billiards doesn’t have to end. A game of billiards could last for ever, even if you were losing all the time. I don’t like things to end.”
― Julian Barnes, The Lemon Table

“Atunci când ţi se frânge inima, gândea el, se despică aidoma lemnului, pe toată lungimea scândurii. În primele zile petrecute la fabrică, l-a văzut pe Gustaf Olsson cum a luat o scândură zdravănă şi a bătut în ea o pană pe care a răsucit-o puţin. Lemnul s-a crăpat de-a lungul fibrei, de la un capăt la celălalt. Este tot ceea ce ai nevoie să ştii despre inimă: unde se află fibra ei. Apoi, cu o răsucire, un gest, un cuvânt, o poţi distruge.”
― Julian Barnes, The Lemon Table

“Unul dintre lucrurile pe care le învăţase în viaţă, şi pe care spera că se va putea bizui, era că o durere intensă alungă una mai puţin intensă. O întindere musculară dispare în înfruntarea cu durerea de dinţi, durerea de dinţi se estompează dacă îţi striveşti degetul. Spera - şi asta era unica lui speranţă acum - că durerea cancerului, durerea morţii, va alunga chinurile dragostei. Dar nu i se părea posibil.”
― Julian Barnes, The Lemon Table

“если бы я вас спросила: «Что есть жизнь?», вы, вероятно, ответили бы коротко и ясно: просто совпадение.”
― Джулиан Барнс, The Lemon Table

“So I caught him on the ankle with a kick and he went down half a flight on his face. He was a heavy man, and there seemed to be blood. The woman he was with, who hadn’t been any more civil, and had smirked when he said, “Fuck off, Charlie,” began screaming. Yes, I thought, as I turned away, maybe in the future you’ll learn to treat the Sibelius violin concerto with more respect.
     It’s all about respect, isn’t it? And, if you don’t have it, you have to be taught it. The true test, the only test, is whether we’re becoming more civilized or whether we aren’t. Wouldn’t you agree?”
― Julian Barnes, The Lemon Table

“When music is literature, it is bad literature. Music begins where words cease. What happens when music ceases? Silence. All the other arts aspire to the condition of music. What does music aspire to? Silence. In that case, I have succeeded. I am now as famous for my long silence as I have been for my music.”
― Julian Barnes, The Lemon Table

“Ma even told me what she wanted done with their ashes. I was to take the caskets to a cliff-top on the Isle of Wight where, I deduced, they had first declared love for one another. Those present were to cast their dust into the wind and seagulls. I already found myself worrying what I was to do with the empty caskets. You couldn't exactly toss them off the cliff after the ashes; nor could you keep them for storing, I don't know, cigars or chocolate biscuits or Christmas decorations.”
― Julian Barnes, The Lemon Table