The Lemon Table Quotes

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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