Howard Jacobson

I always, always wanted to be a writer.

— Howard Jacobson

I'm a Jewish Jane Austen.

— Howard Jacobson

Love is a brainworm.

— Howard Jacobson

Sensitivity doesn't necessarily make you easy to get on with.

— Howard Jacobson

There's a lot to be said for misanthropy.

— Howard Jacobson

I never believe any politician talking about popular culture.

— Howard Jacobson

Nothing is definite, nothing is finished, nothing is determined.

— Howard Jacobson

Box-set culture inclines to the hyperbolic.

— Howard Jacobson

Whoever believes he knows why everything is as it is has hold of nothing.

— Howard Jacobson

We shouldn't be too hard on vanity. It can be a mark of respect for the world.

— Howard Jacobson

In the matrimonial life of the Jewish male every day is Yom Kippur.

— Howard Jacobson

People often think that you have a sense of humor because you think that life is funny. Life isn't funny at all.…

— Howard Jacobson

'Family Guy'. It's not only the funniest programme on television, it's the most wonderfully, indecorously literate.

— Howard Jacobson

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

'J' is a novel. A story about what it is like for people after a terrible event. And it is a love…

— Howard Jacobson

The terrorist isn't a problem because he doesn't conform; he's a problem because he does. It's what he conforms to that makes…

— Howard Jacobson

If the academic community gets its way, we will soon all be speaking with a single voice.

— Howard Jacobson

One of my agents once said I was one of the most dangerous men in London, and I was so excited by…

— Howard Jacobson

You are changed by the people you are closest to, and this has allowed me to forgive myself for the person I…

— Howard Jacobson

I won't go so far as to say that novels sell in inverse proportion to their worth, for just occasionally, someone like…

— Howard Jacobson

It isn't only in the name of free speech that the views of an itchy polemicist should be tolerated - and I…

— Howard Jacobson

Trawl through the world of blogs and tweets, and you will find readers complaining when they stumble upon a word they don't…

— Howard Jacobson

When I first went to Israel, I saw soldiers pushing Palestinians around and thought, 'I can't stand this'. Then I'd meet somebody…

— Howard Jacobson

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

Certainly a curtain has never fallen too soon for me. Every play is too long, even the short ones. Every concert, every…

— Howard Jacobson

That a nation's statuary will reflect beliefs and attitudes that are no longer current or congenial hardly needs arguing. In most instances,…

— Howard Jacobson

If the Jew transmogrified into the Devil for the medieval church, he retained his devilish characteristics as Christian sentiment found other places…

— Howard Jacobson

“Art is made by those who consider themselves to have failed at whatever isn’t art. And of course it is loved as…

— Howard Jacobson

Shakespeare's always been sitting on my back, since I began reading. And, certainly, as a writer, he's who I hear all the…

— Howard Jacobson

As soon as I finished 'The Finkler Question,' I was in despair. I'd changed my English publisher because they'd been lukewarm about…

— Howard Jacobson

I've never owned a T-shirt. I don't like vests or sweaters or cardies with zips. I like a proper shirt with a…

— Howard Jacobson

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

There is a shop close to where I live, outside which, on certain nights of the month - I've no idea if…

— Howard Jacobson

Things go bad after a divorce and often stay that way. It is rare for the parties to return placidly to a…

— Howard Jacobson

“Was he a bad man or just a foolish one? He didn't feel bad to himself. As a husband he believed himself…

— Howard Jacobson

Sometimes, a writer's life alone can tell a story.

— Howard Jacobson

Sentimentality works by our seeing only what we want to see.

— Howard Jacobson

Don't imagine that a word you say is going to make a blind bit of difference.

— Howard Jacobson

Literature is a house with many mansions.

— Howard Jacobson

When emotion rules, every fool thinks that he is holy.

— Howard Jacobson