There's a problem with narratives. Most that spring to mind are fictional. — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
'J' is a novel. A story about what it is like for people after a terrible event. And it is a love… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
If we declare ourselves, as readers, to be on the side of life, the question has to be asked what sort of… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
A novel is not a play. A novel takes one reader at a time into its confidence. It can be shockingly personal.… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
Show me a novel that's not comic, and I'll show you a novel that's not doing its job. — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
A writer should never allow himself to be lulled out of the vigilance native to his profession. — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
All those words of praise they use for novels - spare, economical. Why should I shell out £17 for economical? — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
To my ear, the term 'comic novelist' is as redundant and off-putting as the term 'literary novelist'. — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
In my experience, every book you write changes the conditions in which you write the next. — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
I would rise, monk-like, at 6 A.M., speak to no one, make tea, and go immediately to my desk from which I… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
If we doubt the power of literature and art to civilise, how come no one has ever been mugged by a person… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
Ideally, I would like everyone in the world to read and love my novels. In fact, I can't believe that everyone in… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
A novelist should make you realize nothing is stable. If you don't believe anything with robustness, you're doing something more radical than… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
For me a Writing Day was an occasion for self-reproach and panic, a time to lament the passing of the years, stare… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
Of my old tendency to overdo the dedication and deface the title page with florid compliments and obscure quotes which the recipient… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
Rereading one's own novels after many years is always a fraught business, but when a novel has fallen out of print -… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
Reading literature remains a civilising activity, no matter that it's literature in which people do and say abominable things and the author… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
How do you explain to somebody who doesn't understand that you don't build a library to read. A library is a resource.… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
When people speak to me of the torment of writing, I can think only of what it was like before I wrote:… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
Everything is allowable in literature, but what is not allowable in criticism is objection on the grounds of probability. — Howard Jacobson Copy Share
There's a simple arithmetical logic at work. Build more unaffordable and not always architecturally sympathetic apartments, watch the rents rise, the tarts leave, the… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share
The novel is a thing of irony and ambiguity. That's at the heart of 'J', a world that has stopped arguing with itself. We… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share
I was a 'reverence for life' man - 'see life steadily and see it whole' - in my days as a lecturer in English… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share
How Donald Trump has come so far with so few words - how he even managed to keep up conversationally with all those beauty… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share
It is a nonsense to me when people come along and tell me not to be pessimistic; or that culture has always been going… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share
For me a Writing Day was an occasion for self-reproach and panic, a time to lament the passing of the years, stare out of… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share
That a nation's statuary will reflect beliefs and attitudes that are no longer current or congenial hardly needs arguing. In most instances, it doesn't… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share
“Was he a bad man or just a foolish one? He didn't feel bad to himself. As a husband he believed himself to be… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share
The young come in many guises: vigorous and passionate, vindictive and mean-spirited. And not every person over 65 is dozing in a retirement home. — Howard Jacobson Copy Share
To a philosopher like Nietzsche, the Jew is culpable not for rejecting Christianity but for inventing it. — Howard Jacobson Copy Share
Shakespeare's always been sitting on my back, since I began reading. And, certainly, as a writer, he's who I hear all the time. And… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share
A novelist should make you realize nothing is stable. If you don't believe anything with robustness, you're doing something more radical than anything else. — Howard Jacobson Copy Share
The Stop The War Coalition is a sort of home to Jew-haters because its hate music about Israel is so catchy. — Howard Jacobson Copy Share
