No president has come near to rivaling Lincoln as a writer. — Jonathan Raban President Copy Share Image
All this piling up of one technology on top of another-railroad on steamboat, interstate highway on railroad, hydroelectric dam on watermill-had reduced… — Jonathan Raban Canals Copy Share Image
Life, as the most ancient of all metaphors insists, is a journey; and the travel book, in its deceptive simulation of the… — Jonathan Raban Ancient Copy Share Image
Inaugurals conventionally start with a history lesson and finish with a prayer. — Jonathan Raban History Copy Share Image
When New Yorkers tell one about the dangers of their city, the muggings, the dinner parties to which no one turns up… — Jonathan Raban Bland Copy Share Image
My new city [Seattle] and its hinterland felt deceptively homely. Their similar latitude gave them the angular light and lingering evenings I… — Jonathan Raban Britain Copy Share Image
At night, what you see is a city, because all you see is lights. By day, it doesn't look like a city… — Jonathan Raban Cities Copy Share Image
Because Washington state now votes by mail, elections here tend to play out, at an agonizingly slow speed, over many days and,… — Jonathan Raban Democracy Copy Share Image
The only nation I've ever been tempted to feel really racist about are the Swiss - a whole country of phobic hand… — Jonathan Raban Country Copy Share Image
The [travel] writer, looking back at the journey from a distance of a year or two (or three), is a different character… — Jonathan Raban Alter ego Copy Share Image
The mythical America?that marvellous, heroic, sentimental landwas an object of faith. It challenged you to make the believer's leap over the rude… — Jonathan Raban America Copy Share Image
Over emphatic negatives always suggest that what is being denied may be what is really being asserted. — Jonathan Raban Denied Copy Share Image
Heartbreak comes in different sizes, and the departure of an 18-year-old child for a far college has to be treated as a… — Jonathan Raban Benign Copy Share Image
Books admitted me to their world open-handedly, as people for their most part, did not. The life I lived in books was… — Jonathan Raban Book Copy Share Image
One of the oddest features of western Christianized culture is its ready acceptance of the myth of the stable family and the… — Jonathan Raban Acceptance Copy Share Image
Sociology and anthropology are not disciplines which take easily to situations where people are able to live out their fantasies, not just… — Jonathan Raban Able Copy Share Image
Insofar as I think about postmodernism at all, and it doesn't exactly keep me awake at nights, I think of it as… — Jonathan Raban Authority Copy Share Image
Dreams From My Father' reveals more about Obama than is usually known about political leaders until after they're dead. Perhaps more than… — Jonathan Raban Audience Copy Share Image
One classic American landscape haunts all of American literature. It is a picture of Eden, perceived at the instant of history when… — Jonathan Raban American landscape Copy Share Image
The trouble with ghostwriting is that it raises the issue of whether the president is in a state of diminished responsibility for… — Jonathan Raban Doe Copy Share Image
Living in cities is an art, and we need the vocabulary of art, of style, to describe the peculiar relationship between man… — Jonathan Raban Architecture Copy Share Image
Trouble defies the law of gravity. It's easier to pick up than to drop. — Jonathan Raban Easier Copy Share Image
Spells of acute loneliness are an essential part of travel. Loneliness makes things happen. — Jonathan Raban Essentials Copy Share Image
Travel. It was an intransitive verb. It didn't involve any destinations. It was going to the going's sake, to be anywhere but… — Jonathan Raban Destination Copy Share Image
![“My new city [Seattle] and its hinterland felt deceptively homely.…” quote by Jonathan Raban](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/8e6/jonathan-raban-11981_britain_my-new-city-seattle-and-its-hinterland-f_363879.jpg)
![“The [travel] writer, looking back at the journey from a…” quote by Jonathan Raban](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/e55/jonathan-raban-11981_alter-ego_the-travel-writer-looking-back-at-the-jo_461527.jpg)
