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
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 Copy Share Image
I think one of the main reasons I write is to do better than ranting. The ranting is the opinion, and the… — 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
No good writer ever merely cheered us up. But there's an unblinking stare into the darkness of things we have to go… — 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
Sometimes I felt like my columns were like little novels in themselves. But I wasn't writing what I believed. I'm not interested… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
Although, from the point of view of sociology, the overt ambition of 'American Pastoral' - to imagine the impact on a good… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
Many a trivial novel has been written about an important subject, and many a profound one about nothing in particular. — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
The novels I planned to write were never going to be funny books about Jews. They were going to be country house… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
“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 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
That's the great test: if you're going to be a great comic writer, not a humorist, you've got to take it into… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
One should take writers' valuations of their own work with a pinch of salt: they are likely to rank them differently tomorrow. — 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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
To a philosopher like Nietzsche, the Jew is culpable not for rejecting Christianity but for inventing it. — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
