Howard Jacobson Quotes

• How do you explain to somebody who doesn't understand that you don't build a library to read. A library is a resource. Something you go to, for reference, as and when. But also something you simply look at, because it gives you succour, answers to some idea of who you are or, more to the point, who you would like to be, who you will be once you own every book you need to own.

  Howard Jacobson

  Book, Ideas, Giving

  Howard Jacobson (2011). “Whatever It Is, I Don't Like It”, p.101, Bloomsbury Publishing

  46 Copy quote

• How do you go on knowing that you will never again - not ever, ever - see the person you have loved? How do you survive a single hour, a single minute, a single second of that knowledge? How do you hold yourself together?

  Howard Jacobson

  Knowing, Together, Goes On

  Howard Jacobson (2010). “The Finkler Question”, p.16, A&C Black

  15 Copy quote

• A novelist should make you realize nothing is stable. If you don't believe anything with robustness, you're doing something more radical than anything else.

  Howard Jacobson

  Believe, Novelists, Realizing

  10 Copy quote

• The perfect bacon sandwich is on white bread, very soft and very thick. Sourdough with a good crust. The bacon is half way to being crispy - and there's lots of it - and enough brown sauce to trickle down your arm. You've not really enjoyed a bacon sandwich unless 10 minutes later you're still licking your wrists.

  Howard Jacobson

  White, Perfect, Arms

  "Howard Jacobson: What I've Learned" by Ben Mitchell, www.esquire.com. August 10, 2014.

  10 Copy quote

• Although I was too young to understand the theory of universal (that's to say male) guilt, I was old enough to know which sex suffered migraine and which sex caused it.

  Howard Jacobson

  Sex, Guilt, Males

  Howard Jacobson (2013). “Redback”, p.32, Random House

  7 Copy quote

• The girls pick snouts from the pack as though they're chocolates and it matters which they select.

  Howard Jacobson

  Girl, Smoking, Chocolate

  Howard Jacobson (1998). “No more mister nice guy”, Random House (UK)

  9 Copy quote

• I took the route favoured by all worldly failures and became a spiritual success.

  Howard Jacobson

  Spiritual, Spiritual Success, Routes

  "Falling short: seven writers reflect on failure" by Diana Athill, Margaret Atwood, Julian Barnes, Anne Enright, Howard Jacobson, Will Self, Lionel Shriver, www.theguardian.com. June 22, 2013.

  8 Copy quote

• I'm a Jewish Jane Austen.

  Howard Jacobson

  Austen, Jane

  Nextbook Interview, September 14, 2004.

  9 Copy quote

• I could use the company but I can't go through the pain of getting it.

  Howard Jacobson

  Pain, Use, Company

  Howard Jacobson (2010). “The Finkler Question”, p.38, A&C Black

  10 Copy quote

• 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 looking ultimately becomes one's subject - these are important questions.

  Howard Jacobson

  Taken, Important, Liberty

  4 Copy quote

• Marriage is like a barbecue. When you light a barbecue, it's very exciting to see the flames. That's lovely, but you have to wait until the flames have died down. Everything that you want from a barbecue happens on the hot embers. You can't cook on those flames.

  Howard Jacobson

  Light, Flames, Waiting

  13 Copy quote

• It's never over till it's over with a friend.

  Howard Jacobson

  Howard Jacobson (2010). “The Finkler Question”, p.46, A&C Black

  6 Copy quote

• All those words of praise they use for novels - spare, economical. Why should I shell out £17 for economical?

  Howard Jacobson

  Use, Shells, Praise

  Interview in the Daily Telegraph, April 2003.

  5 Copy quote

• In the matrimonial life of the Jewish male every day is Yom Kippur.

  Howard Jacobson

  Males, Yom Kippur

  "Coming from Behind". Book by Howard Jacobson, 1983.

  4 Copy quote

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