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“A person is, among all else, a material thing, easily torn and not easily mended.”

—Ian McEwan, Atonement

“Every now and then, quite unintentionally, someone taught you something about yourself. ”

—Atonement; Ian McEwan

“The trouble with being a daydreamer who doesn’t say much is that the teachers at school, especially those who don’t know you very well, are likely to think you’re rather stupid. Or, if not stupid, then dull. No one can see the amazing things that are going on in your head”

—The Daydreamer, Ian McEwan

“You’ve killed no one today? But how many did you leave to die?”

—Ian McEwan, Atonement

“But how to do feelings? All very well to write "She felt sad", or describe what a sad person might do, but what of sadness itself, how was that put across so it could be felt in all its lowering immediacy?”

— Ian McEwan, Atonement

“We have many shelves of poetry at home, but still, it takes an effort to step out of the daily narrative of existence, draw that neglected cloak of stillness around you—and concentrate, if only for three or four minutes. Perhaps the greatest reading pleasure has an element of self-annihilation. To be so engrossed that you barely know you exist... What is it precisely, that feeling of 'returning' from a poem? Something is lighter, softer, larger—then it fades, but never completely.”

—Ian McEwan

“A story was a form of telepathy. By means of inking symbols onto a page, she was able to send thoughts and feelings from her mind to her reader's. It was a magical process, so commonplace that no one stopped to wonder at it.”

—Ian McEwan Atonement

“Girls can wear jeans and cut their hair short and wear shirts and boots because it’s okay to be a boy; for girls it’s like promotion. But for a boy to look like a girl is degrading, according to you, because secretly you believe that being a girl is degrading.”

—Ian McEwan, The Cement Garden
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