When I want an opinion, I'll get it from my peers - from men of vision, like our great railroad builders... Stanford,… — Jonathan Raban Broads Copy Share Image
Simply as a writer of books I'm thrilled and proud that Seattle should have raised, on a public vote, sufficient money to… — Jonathan Raban Book Copy Share Image
Rage' is the word that most often attaches itself to the Tea Party movement, and it's true that, from the outside looking… — Jonathan Raban 1960s Copy Share Image
The Falklands held a mirror up to our own islands, and it reflected, in brilliantly sharp focus, all our injured belittlement, our… — Jonathan Raban Falklands Copy Share Image
The only book by a modern president that bears serious comparison with Obama's 'Dreams From My Father' is Jimmy Carter's short campaign… — Jonathan Raban Autobiography Copy Share Image
In an underdeveloped country don't drink the water. In a developed country don't breathe the air. — Jonathan Raban Air Copy Share Image
Critics? Don't talk to me of critics! You think some jackanapes journalist, his soul eaten away by the maggots of jealousy and… — Jonathan Raban Art Copy Share Image
Seattle is not an overly friendly city. It is a civil city, but not altogether friendly. People from outside mistake the civility… — Jonathan Raban Cities Copy Share Image
The only real river I knew was hardly more than a brook. It spilled through a tumbledown mill at the bottom of… — Jonathan Raban Bottom Copy Share Image
To the newcomer who has not learned its language, a large city is a chaos of details, a vast Woolworths store of… — Jonathan Raban Chaos Copy Share Image
There's an enduring American compulsion to be on the side of the angels. Expediency alone has never been an adequate American reason… — Jonathan Raban Action Copy Share Image
Lincoln, steeped in the Bible and Shakespeare, set an impossibly high bar for presidential prose. — Jonathan Raban Bars Copy Share Image
It's been so long since a talented writer last occupied the White House; no wonder, then, that American writers have been among… — Jonathan Raban American writer Copy Share Image
In novels and autobiographies, the first positive move that the immigrant makes towards assimilation is to buy himself a suit of city… — Jonathan Raban Assimilation Copy Share Image
I loved the audacity of that American principle which says. When life gets tainted or goes stale, junk it! Leave it behind!… — Jonathan Raban Audacity Copy Share Image
It always seems to me odd to call a place a wilderness when every wilderness area in the US bristles with rules… — Jonathan Raban Areas Copy Share Image
Seattle was built out on pilings over the sea, and at high tide the whole city seemed to come afloat like a… — Jonathan Raban Built Copy Share Image
Democrats inhabit the low shores of Puget Sound, mostly on its eastern side, in a ragged trail of port-cities that stretches from… — Jonathan Raban Borders Copy Share Image
The city has always been an embodiment of hope and a source of feeling guilt; a dream pursued, and found vain, wanting,… — Jonathan Raban Cities Copy Share Image
Seattle is a liberal city, its politics not so much blue (in the American, not the British, sense) as deep ultramarine, and… — Jonathan Raban Blue Copy Share Image
In rural areas the majority of the victims of violent crime know their assailants (indeed, are probably married to them); in cities,… — Jonathan Raban Areas Copy Share Image
I ain't sleeping. I'm just taking a good look at the insides of my eyelids. — Jonathan Raban Eyelids Copy Share Image
When traveling, I usually keep a notebook: when home at my desk, the notebook serves mainly to remind me how little I… — Jonathan Raban Desks Copy Share Image
Every White House has had its intellectuals, but very few presidents have been intellectuals themselves - Thomas Jefferson, John Adams, Woodrow Wilson,… — Jonathan Raban House Copy Share Image
If we live inside a bad joke, it is up to us to learn, at best and worst, to tell it well. — Jonathan Raban Bad jokes Copy Share Image
