Alarm bells ring when a politician stands haughty upon his honour. — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
“… matter out of place, as a famous anthropologist once described dirt.” — Howard Jacobson Anthropologist Copy Share Image
There's a problem with narratives. Most that spring to mind are fictional. — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
I am in denial about sport. I refuse to accept that I watch it. I am not the kind of man who… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
Of the secular mysteries to which I wake with fresh and sometimes angry amazement every day, the queue is the second-most baffling.… — Howard Jacobson Angry Copy Share Image
I wouldn't suppose for one moment that there's a single one of Trump's voters that would be anything but confirmed in their… — 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 Books Copy Share Image
The liveliest effusions of wit and humour are simply what the reader of a novel has a right to expect. — Howard Jacobson Books Copy Share Image
To assert that antisemitism is unlike other racisms is not to claim a privilege for it. Hating a Jew is no worse… — Howard Jacobson Antisemitism 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
I wouldn't dream of watching motor racing, cycling, or golf - which aren't truly sports anyway. — Howard Jacobson Dream 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
“I suspect you're thinking of Pascal,' Finkler said, finally.'Only he said the opposite. He said you might as well wager on God… — Howard Jacobson God Copy Share Image
It is no judgement of a thing outside yourself to say it makes you ill. The wise reader knows that every pronouncement… — Howard Jacobson Books Copy Share Image
I have never met an intelligent optimist. That is not to say I think pessimism makes you intelligent, but I have always… — Howard Jacobson Ancient greece Copy Share Image
I was brought up a Jew but, you know, that way of being Jewish - the New York way. We were stomach… — Howard Jacobson Day Copy Share Image
Politically it's easy to salve one's conscience, no matter that salving it rarely makes the problem go away. You join the Labour… — Howard Jacobson Conscience Copy Share Image
The Christian Armenian story was the Polish Jewish story. The efforts of the Armenians to stay alive in Musa Dagh chimed with… — Howard Jacobson Alive Copy Share Image
There is much that makes one pause in 'If This is a Man', the record of Levi's 11-month incarceration in Auschwitz, much… — 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 Ambition 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… — Howard Jacobson Argument Copy Share Image
Words do not necessarily make us moral. And there have been presidents before who have stumbled over syntax and looked foolish when… — Howard Jacobson Language Copy Share Image
To be clear, I abhor the separation wall. It is an eyesore in itself and makes tangible the failed diplomacy and cruel… — Howard Jacobson Change Copy Share Image
It is against the spirit of our non-discriminating times to openly prefer one sort of music to another, so let's just say… — Howard Jacobson Age Copy Share Image
I had worked on the markets with my father before going to university, so I possessed an apparent street-smartness, had access to… — Howard Jacobson Father Copy Share Image
“Faith wasn’t a mystery to him; the mystery to him was holding on to faith. He” — Howard Jacobson Faith Copy Share Image
Shake any institution of higher learning, and a dozen boycotters will fall out of it. — Howard Jacobson Education Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
If the academic community gets its way, we will soon all be speaking with a single voice. — Howard Jacobson Community Copy Share Image
One of my agents once said I was one of the most dangerous men in London, and I was so excited by… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
Our connection to the great myths of our natures is murky. A mother might see the Medea in herself without imagining she… — Howard Jacobson Children Copy Share Image
You are changed by the people you are closest to, and this has allowed me to forgive myself for the person I… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
I'm an old-fashioned English lit. man. Straight down the line - it's George Eliot, it's Dickens, it's Dr. Johnson, it's Jane Austen. — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
The painter Sidney Nolan once told me I tried too hard. Advice I've been trying hard to follow ever since. — Howard Jacobson Advice Copy Share Image
