Julian Barnes Quotes

Life is tragic comedy, in a way. There is humor.

I think I've been called edgy - but in all honesty, there is a safety in what I do because I'm always the idiot. Unless you're just listening to buzz words and not taking into account the context of the situation, you see I'm always the ignoramus.

irony is an indispensable ingredient of the critical vision; it is the safest antidote to sentimental decay.

Irony differentiates. Cynicism never does.

Irony: Don't let yourself be controlled by it, especially during uncreative moments.

What would we do without irony? Check out your own daily reliance on it, the foul-weather friend who's there for you when nothing else is.

You can go into Mark Twain's material and prove anything you want. He was against war. He was for war. He was against rich people and he was for them. He was a kaleidoscope.

I like to think my sense of humor is sort of smart and dumb at the same time. I like to work on multiple levels - smart and dumb, funny and sad, profound and mundane, cynical and hopeful.

A situation is always comic if it participates simultaneously in two series of events which are absolutely independent of each other, and if it can be interpreted in two quite different meanings.

The interesting thing about humor is that in humor, you - in logic, something is A or not A. In humor, it's both A and not A.

Irony is one of my favorite aspects of life.

The great thing about irony is that it splits things apart, gets up above them so we can see the flaws and hypocrisies and duplicates.

Irony is a clear consciousness of an eternal agility, of the infinitely abundant chaos.

What I claim is to live to the full the contradiction of my time, which may well make sarcasm the condition of truth.

I think comedy is the perfect vehicle for that which is slightly beyond life.

It's just something that's sort of funny, sort of not.

Most jokes state a bitter truth.

It's odd how violence and humor so often go together, isn't it?

Irony regards every simple truth as a challenge.

You might find me outside with a can of hair spray, spraying it with the hope that the sun will burn a hole in the Earth. Another part of me hopes people will grow up and evolve and get smarter. That's the paradox of Marilyn Manson.

Irony is the form of paradox. Paradox is what is good and great at the same time.

I love irony.

Ironic things are interesting.

I've got a sick sense of humour, a dark sense of humour. I do care about things and care about people but there's another side to me.

There are two ways of dealing with nonsense in this world. One way is to put nonsense in the right place; as when people put nonsense into nursery rhymes. The other is to put nonsense in the wrong place; as when they put it into educational addresses, psychological criticisms, and complaints against nursery rhymes or other normal amusements of mankind.