As I said, I had no publisher for What a Carve Up! while I was writing it, so all we had to live off was my wife's money and little bits I was picking up for journalism. Jonathan Coe More Quotes by Jonathan Coe More Quotes From Jonathan Coe 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 you happy, can't it, even if it isn't real. Jonathan Coe real rain fall Objectivity is just male subjectivity. Jonathan Coe subjectivity males objectivity We say, 'Shall we meet for a drink?', as though drinking were the main end of the appointment, and the matter of company only incidental, we are so shy about admitting our need for one another.[...]We say, 'Would you like to come for some coffee?', as though it were less frightening to acknowledge that we are heavily dependent on mildly stimulating drinks, than to acknowledge that we are at all dependent on the companionship of other people. Jonathan Coe coffee drinking people Ah, well, I have no talent for nonfiction, that's my problem. Jonathan Coe fiction-and-nonfiction talent problem Some people don't realize that a straight 'No' can be the kindest answer in the world. Jonathan Coe answers people world I'm one of those unlucky people who had a happy childhood. Jonathan Coe unlucky childhood people For many weeks after [my wife] died, I could not get used to the feeling of coldness and lifelessness on her side of the bed - and it was even worse when they took the body away and buried her. Jonathan Coe wife sides feelings 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 cosmic practical joke, by assigning me little more than a walk-on part in my own life. Or sometimes I feel that my role is simply to be a spectator to other people's stories, and always to wander away at the most important moment, drifiting into the kitchen to make a cup of tea just as the denouement unfolds. Jonathan Coe kitchen tea people I live a perfectly happy and comfortable life in Blair's Britain, but I can't work up much affection for the culture we've created for ourselves: it's too cynical, too knowing, too ironic, too empty of real value and meaning. Jonathan Coe cynical knowing real 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 what I remain in my own eyes, to this day. The knowledge never goes, can never be undone. You just have to find a way to live with it. Jonathan Coe way-to-live eye mistake The biggest markets for my books outside the UK are France and Italy, and those are the two countries where I also have the closest personal relationships with my translators - I don't know whether that's a coincidence, or if there's something to be learned from it. Jonathan Coe two country book I had no sense of any reputation that What a Carve Up! might acquire - at the time I didnt even have a publisher, so my main worry was whether it was even going to see the light of day or not. Jonathan Coe light worry might Revisionist historians are about to get their hands on the Thatcher years, shes probably going to be looked at again because she feels far enough away now, and we dont see her much on the political landscape in this country, shes kind of disappeared and she doesnt speak out much anymore. Jonathan Coe speaks-out country hands I like the idea of a big caesura between the narratives, a space which readers can fill in with their own speculative history. Jonathan Coe narrative space ideas I was mainly in a state of nervousness while I wrote it - nervousness that it was far bigger and more complicated than anything Id attempted before, and that maybe my talent just wasnt up to it and the book would have to be abandoned, or would turn out not to work at all when it was finished. Jonathan Coe talent complicated book Contemporary Britain seems an endlessly fascinating place to me - but if I knew a little bit more about other places, and other times, maybe it wouldn't. Jonathan Coe britain contemporary littles Well, I like the rain before it falls. Jonathan Coe wells rain fall As soon as you start writing about how human beings interact with each other socially, you're into politics, aren't you? Jonathan Coe human-beings humans writing As the books grew bigger and more ambitious, the situations in question sometimes became political ones, and so it became necessary to start painting in the social background on a scale which eventually became panoramic. Jonathan Coe ambitious political book But at the same time, I have trouble keeping things out of books, which is why I don't write short stories because they turn into novels. Jonathan Coe stories writing book
