Departure[s] Quotes

“I am aware that shortly I shall exist as only a shelf-ful of books plus a cluster of Biographical Anecdotes. And life is not a tragedy with a happy ending, despite what religion promises; rather, it is a farce with a tragic ending, or, at best, a light comedy with a sad ending.”
― Julian Barnes, Departure

“Incurable yet manageable’, that sounds like … life, doesn’t it? Though there are, inevitably, some dreamers who attempt to evade this existential equation. They tend to be the ultra-rich, who also indulge in space travel and paranoid fantasies. For them, the way out of death’s trap is to be found in extending the length of human life, reversing the process of ageing, and transporting us (though these para-dreamers will get the first seats out) to some planet where our breathing will be slowed and we shall live for much, much longer. In the meantime we trash the only planet we have, and make life unliveable for future generations.”
― Julian Barnes, Departure

“The head and the heart are still working, as the body declines. But better that way around.”
― Julian Barnes, Departure[s]

“When first thinking seriously about death, I came up with an image for it: not as something that awaits us, a terminus at the end of a journey, an arrival from which there will be no further departure. Rather, I thought of it as always being there, on a set of parallel tracks alongside my life. And at any point some unexpected set of points might bring it swerving across my path to obliterate me.”
― Julian Barnes, Departure[s]

“Men (and most of these bizarre activities were undertaken by men) can be most ingenious, even - or especially - when it goes against their own best interests.”
― Julian Barnes, Departure[s]

“Έχω την εντύπωση ότι οι άνθρωποι είναι συχνά τόσο απασχολημένοι με το να ζουν, που ξεχνούν πως είναι άνθρωποι -ή τουλάχιστον ξεχνούν τι σημαίνει να είσαι άνθρωπος και ποιες συνέπειες επιφέρει αυτό το γεγονός- και επομένως ξεχνούν τι σημαίνει να είσαι νεκρός.”
― Julian Barnes, Departure[s]

“Η ανάγκη για αυτοδιόρθωση έρχεται με την ηλικία, όπως και η συνήθεια της επανάληψης. Πρέπει να έχει να κάνει με το θάνατο και την αναχώρηση απ’αυτή τη ζωή.”
― Julian Barnes, Departure[s]

“Όσοι δεν βαριούνται ποτέ τον εαυτό τους και συνεχίζουν να διασκεδάζουν δημόσια με τη ζωή τους και τις επαναλαμβανόμενες ιστορίες τους είναι συνήθως οι πιο ανιαροί άνθρωποι στον πλανήτη. Κατά κανόνα και πάλι άντρες.”
― Julian Barnes, Departure[s]

“We can and should trust novelists when they tell us the beautiful lies of their fiction.”
― Julian Barnes, Departure[s]

“All writers want their words to have an effect. Novelists want to entertain, to reveal truth, to move, to provoke reverie. And beyond? Do they want their readers to act as a result of their words? It depends.”
― Julian Barnes, Departure[s]

“She looked at me dismissively. ‘Oh, stop saying wise things that aren’t true.”
― Julian Barnes, Departure

“For instance: where it went wrong was that Stephen believed he was still in love with Jean, and probably was, and Jean could neither accept his love nor return it, which showed either integrity or practical wisdom or harshness on her part.”
― Julian Barnes, Departure

“But I think the great novelists understand love, and most aspects of human behaviour, better than, say, psychiatrists or scientists or philosophers or priests or lonely-hearts columnists.”
― Julian Barnes, Departure

“All deaths inflict collateral damage. The dying person will soon feel nothing, while the griefstruck will be irradiated for years to come. Yes, I could see why Terry said, ‘It’s worse for Joanna,’ even while I stubbornly insist that it was and is worse for him. ‘But having been in Joanna’s position and fully experienced grief, I now think I have the easier job, which is to die (and I trust I’ll get a little help with that). What I am, not most, but heavily afraid of, is the grief I shall impose on R.”
― Julian Barnes, Departure

“shall fit a plug into the wall; and listen to the past. I shall turn up August 1890. I feel that strong emotion must leave its trace; and it is only a question of discovering how we can get ourselves again attached to it”
― Julian Barnes, Departure