Ian Mcewan
Ian Mcewan
Ian Russell McEwan CBE FRSA FRSLis an English novelist and screenwriter. In 2008, The Times featured him on their list of "The 50 greatest British writers since 1945"...
NationalityBritish
ProfessionScreenwriter
Date of Birth21 June 1948
five hundred people six tied
Some people are tied to five hundred words a day, six days a week. I'm a hesitater.
children human locked mortgage work
The moment you have children and a mortgage you want things to work; you're locked into the human project and you want it to flourish.
acute articulate deal drinking great towards
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.
english fascinates literary poet regards
As regards literary culture, it fascinates me that it has been so resilient to the Union. For example, when T.S. Eliot wanted to become poet in these lands, it wasn't as an English poet, it was an Anglian poet he wanted to be.
above became began bubble commented contained include interested literature somehow trying within work
When I began I thought that literature was contained within a bubble that somehow floated above the world commented upon by newspapers. But I became more and more interested in trying to include some of that world within my work.
literary quite scientific
Something is missing in our culture. We can't quite celebrate the scientific literary tradition.
bad bear computer denied entry states united
I now bear a kind of stigmata. I am in the computer as having been denied entry to the United States and that is really bad news. They can put things into that computer, but they never take them out.
writing mean thinking
I couldn't think about novels at all. It seemed the only writing that was appropriate to that horrendous event was journalism, reportage. And, in fact, I think the profession rose quite honorably to the task. Novelists require a slower turnover, I mean, in time.
writing giving people
When people ask, "Is there any advice you'd give a young writer?," I say write short stories. They afford lots of failure. Pastiche is a great way to start.
imagination cruelty
I've always thought cruelty is a failure of imagination.
thinking guarantees earth
I'm not against religion in the sense that I feel I can't tolerate it, but I think written into the rubric of religion is the certainty of its own truth. And since there are 6,000 religions currently on the face of the earth, they can't all be right. And only the secular spirit can guarantee those freedoms and it's the secular spirit that they contest.
thinking people needs
When people have supernatural beliefs I think they should be respected but there is no reason why they need to impose them on others.
sadness home thinking
Dying in unfamiliar surroundings miles away from home, it cannot possibly be good. There is a great sadness about that I think.
farewell sleep doors
I read in announcements of deaths 'peacefully in his sleep' and I wonder how many of those are true. Maybe they are just conventional. I hope they are true whenever I read it of someone. [But] I would rather be awake. Peacefully awake, brim full of some calming drug that was seeing me out of the door, having said my farewells.