Julian Barnes
👤 SpeakerAppearances Over Time
Podcast Appearances
Everything that happened to us is up there.
So it's a question of what the brain lets us know and lets us see.
So I thought of the comparison with spy fiction, with John le Carré.
We're like an agent running in the field and the brain is like the spy center, the control.
And the brain only tells us
what we need to do our next task.
So just as control doesn't let the spy know everything that's happening, only lets the spy know what is useful to him in his spying and doesn't overcomplicate matters.
That, I think, is how the brain behaves with us.
My wife passed.
I hate that.
I hate that.
It's a way of not using the right word.
I always say death.
You know, I remember when I first... It's fairly recent.
I mean, the last 20 years or so, people have started saying past.
And you say... I was first sort of puzzled by it.
You know, past.
Your wife has passed.
Passed water, passed blood.
Passed... Oh, passed over.