To a philosopher like Nietzsche, the Jew is culpable not for rejecting Christianity but for inventing it. — Howard Jacobson Christianity Copy Share Image
As a young man, I wooed, unsuccessfully, with Puccini. It's important to get your operas right. — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
Let's be honest with one another: almost everything is too long except life, and I know people who wouldn't even concur with… — 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 Books Copy Share Image
All those words of praise they use for novels - spare, economical. Why should I shell out £17 for economical? — Howard Jacobson Books Copy Share Image
Many a woman has suffered at the hands of a Paul Morel. There's more than one way of being brutal. — Howard Jacobson Being Copy Share Image
Passionate dissent from the will of the multitude should be respected, not derided. — Howard Jacobson Dissent Copy Share Image
If something or someone is being banned, I want to be among the first to know about it. — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
'Great Expectations', in short, is a more damning account of the mess Dickens himself had made of love than any denunciation on… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
The death of an Italian tailor might not be calamitous in Catania or Cagliari, but the loss to Soho is immeasurable. We… — Howard Jacobson Death Copy Share Image
Economics is not a science; it is a quasi-religion: part superstition, part mystique, part sentimentality. Bankers dream like other men, the only… — Howard Jacobson Bankers Copy Share Image
The presence of a Jew in any movement no more guarantees it to be innocent of antisemitism than guilty. And that applies… — Howard Jacobson Guilty Copy Share Image
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 Books Copy Share Image
It isn't only in the name of free speech that the views of an itchy polemicist should be tolerated - and I… — Howard Jacobson Communication Copy Share Image
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 Attitude Copy Share Image
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 Copy Share Image
I normally take a long time finding titles. I finish the book and go into sweats for months afterwards trying to think… — Howard Jacobson Books 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
There mustn't be a moment when we turn on the TV and think, 'There's Trump in the White House' - that must… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
It's always nice to be praised, and insofar as a prize is a form of praise, you're glad when you get it. — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
Artless fairy stories enchant us in our first years and retain their hold on us until our last. — Howard Jacobson Fairy Copy Share Image
Everything is allowable in literature, but what is not allowable in criticism is objection on the grounds of probability. — Howard Jacobson Books 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 Age 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,… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
Certainly a curtain has never fallen too soon for me. Every play is too long, even the short ones. Every concert, every… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
What it is to see, what liberties are taken when one looks, where looking leaves one vis-a-vis one's subject, or how far… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
If the Jew transmogrified into the Devil for the medieval church, he retained his devilish characteristics as Christian sentiment found other places… — Howard Jacobson Church Copy Share Image
I was young; I was newly married. My Cambridge degree was still warm in my pocket - a roll of parchment guaranteeing… — Howard Jacobson Cambridge 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 Eyes 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 Art 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
Alone of prejudices, anti-Zionism is sacrosanct. How very dare we distinguish the motivation of one sort from another? Or question, in any… — Howard Jacobson Alone Copy Share Image
Nobody who's thought about politics or democracy over the thousands of years that people have been thinking about democracy hasn't come up… — Howard Jacobson Democracy Copy Share Image
This is now the way our culture prioritises. Look up 'Steppenwolf,' and you'll get the band before the novel. Look up Jesus… — Howard Jacobson Culture Copy Share Image
Leaned on by Turkey and understandably wary of false equivalences - for not every death is a massacre, and not every war… — Howard Jacobson Armenian genocide Copy Share Image
I find Australia compelling and vexatious at the best of times; I've never been able to get it out of my system… — Howard Jacobson Australia Copy Share Image
I once belonged to a health club, where it cost me £2,000 a year to amble on a treadmill for half an… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
I am happiest now. There's nothing like running out of time to make you realise you're in the right skin, with the… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
It is good for a person who has suffered from acute shyness, as I had, to find that he can cause as… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
Trump's hobbled vocabulary is now the incontestable stuff of comedy: not just how few his words but how narrow their range, from… — Howard Jacobson Copy Share Image
