#de

Definition of a victim: a person to whom life happens. ↗

— Peter McWilliams

#happens #life #life happens #person #victim

I always used to deny this, but I guess what I'm really saying is that I was writing to shock... And I dug deep and dredged up all kinds of vile things which fascinated me at the time. ↗

— Ian Mcewan

#deep #deny #dug #fascinated #guess

We can consciously end our life almost anytime we choose. This ability is an endowment, like laughing and blushing, given to no other animal... in any given moment, by not exercising the option of suicide, we are choosing to live. ↗

— Peter McWilliams

#almost #animal #any #anytime #blushing

Atheists have as much conscience, possibly more, than people with deep religious conviction, and they still have the same problem of how they reconcile themselves to a bad deed in the past. It's a little easier if you've got a god to forgive you. ↗

— Ian Mcewan

#bad #conscience #conviction #deed #deep

By concentrating on what is good in people, by appealing to their idealism and their sense of justice, and by asking them to put their faith in the future, socialists put themselves at a severe disadvantage. ↗

— Ian Mcewan

#asking #concentrating #disadvantage #faith #future

I actually find novels that are determined to be funny at every turn quite oppressive. ↗

— Ian Mcewan

#determined #every #find #funny #i

I apologize for being obvious, but every time I watch the curtain come down on even a halfway decent production of a Shakespeare play I feel a little sorrowful that I'll never know the man, or any man of such warm intelligence. ↗

— Ian Mcewan

#apologize #being #come #curtain #decent

Try and understand what part you have to play in the world in which you live. There's more to life than you know and it's all happening out there. Discover what part you can play and then go for it. ↗

— Ian Mckellen

#go #go for it #happening #know #life

I think of novels in architectural terms. You have to enter at the gate, and this gate must be constructed in such a way that the reader has immediate confidence in the strength of the building. ↗

— Ian Mcewan

#building #confidence #constructed #enter #gate

My father's drinking was sometimes a problem. And a great deal went unspoken. He was not particularly acute or articulate about the emotions. But he was very affectionate towards me. ↗

— Ian Mcewan

#acute #affectionate #articulate #deal #drinking