Books Quote by Philip Hensher

“Previously, gay life had seemed a merry series of cabinet reshuffles and rearrangements, in which everyone was single for a time, then paired off…

— Philip Hensher

I think you can tell when you meet someone whether they read novels. There's some hollowness if they don't.

— Philip Hensher

The Humbling is not vintage Roth, despite its compelling premise. The bizarre series of episodes -- mostly sexual encounters with women -- which make…

— Philip Hensher

“The thing I truly object to,” Kitty said, “and I know this sounds trivial and I don’t care if it sounds a bit snobbish,…

— Philip Hensher

It [fiction] allows us to see the world from the point of view of someone else and there has been quite a lot of…

— Philip Hensher

“It’s material deprivation that starts all this off.” “They’ve got dishwashers, Miranda,” Billa said. “They’re not examples of material deprivation.”

— Philip Hensher

“Depressing realization sets in. Writing was invented not by human beings but by accountants. Most of the early writing systems are records of how…

— Philip Hensher

“You need to start making an effort,” Richard said. “There’s a thing called the gay scene nowadays. It happens in large cities – London,…

— Philip Hensher

“... something very unusual, a chocolate-flavoured log of goats’ cheese. “Made by lesbians in Wales,” Sam had explained superfluously.”

— Philip Hensher

“It happened to some people, that obsession with throwing their clothes off at an age when it would be best to keep them on.”

— Philip Hensher

“Why do we say ‘the cockles of your heart’?” David said. “Nothing to do with whelks, I suppose.”

— Philip Hensher

“If you don't say anything it can't become important, but if you say it everyone's ever after got to walk round it like a…

— Philip Hensher