Jonathan Coe Quotes

35 quotes in 634 categories

• But you can try to read books at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons.
• Thatcherism has become bigger than she ever was.
• The writer I feel the most affinity with - you said you felt my books are 19th century novels, I think they're 18th century novels…
• I like the rain before it falls. of course there is no such thing, she said. That's why it's my favorite. Something can still make…
• The plain fact is that she never really liked me, and never wanted me. I had been a mistake; and that, to some extent, is…
• Objectivity is just male subjectivity.
• Sometimes I feel that I am destined always to be offstage whenever the main action occurs. That God has made me the victim of some…
• Some people don't realize that a straight 'No' can be the kindest answer in the world.
• I was going to say 'my friend Stuart', but I suppose he's not a friend any more. I seem to have lost a number of…
• But we are entitled to look for continuity in politics.
• Luckily, in my case, I have managed, by writing, to do the one thing that I always wanted to do.
• I became quite taken over by Johnson's personality at some points while writing the biography, and since I went straight on to The Closed Circle…
• I think it's also the case that I'm not as widely travelled, or as well-educated in history, as most of the other novelists I meet:…
• It's only a drawback in the States, where most people seem to have no real interest in other countries and the notion of a novel…
• They were written in the early '90s when I was strapped for cash.

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