Julian Barnes Quotes

Of Rhetoric various definitions have been given by different writers; who, however, seem not so much to have disagreed in their conceptions of the nature of the same thing, as to have had different things in view while they employed the same term.

Cut off my head, and singular I am, Cut off my tail, and plural I appear; Although my middle's left, there's nothing there! What is my head cut off? A sounding sea; What is my tail cut off? A rushing river; And in their mingling depths I fearless play, Parent of sweetest sounds, yet mute forever.

It's not easy to define poetry.

I love playing with words and texture.

Anyone can tell the truth, but only very few of us can make epigrams.

When I need to know the meaning of a word, I look it up in a dictionary.

I hear a little firecracker go off when you come up with a good rhyme.

I wasn't really naked. I simply didn't have any clothes on.

A writer is someone who can make a riddle out of an answer.

Poetry, especially traditional Iranian poetry, is very good at looking at things from a number of different angles simultaneously.

Poets are seen as the caretakers of language, so working with words no matter what the form is what we do.

I like words. I like the way they clash around together and bang up against each other, especially in songs.

It doesn't matter what temperature the room is, it's always room temperature.

If a word in the dictionary were misspelled, how would we know?

I was reading the dictionary. I thought it was a poem about everything.

Last year I went fishing with Salvador Dali. He was using a dotted line. He caught every other fish.

Time flies like an arrow - but fruit flies like a banana.

The word “History” is mostly made up of the word “Story”.

I think of myself as a writer as much as I think of myself as a linguist and an academic. I really enjoy writing - playing with language and getting just the right metaphor.

All my plays have these titles that are oddly tricky. I like that something can look like one thing but mean two different things. Language is really unstable in that way.

Some of the words that pop up on the show have had terrible connotations. But that's the beauty of 'Countdown.'

To define an expression is, paradoxically speaking, to explain how to get along without it. To define is to eliminate.

I hate a hook. It nauseates me. I could vomit when I see one. It's like a rattlesnake in your pocket.

The longest word in the world is "a word from our sponsor."

Remember the waterfront shack with the sign FRESH FISH SOLD HERE. Of course it's fresh, we're on the ocean. Of course it's for sale, we're not giving it away. Of course it's here, otherwise the sign would be someplace else. The final sign: FISH.