Imagine the anticlimax of opening a novel you'd just got Dostoyevsky to sign and finding 'Keep smiling - Fyodor.' Howard Jacobson More Quotes by Howard Jacobson More Quotes From Howard Jacobson Sentimentality works by our seeing only what we want to see. Howard Jacobson only see seeing want Things go bad after a divorce and often stay that way. It is rare for the parties to return placidly to a time before they met. A bitterness lingers on. Those who call this our Independence Day, fantasising of returning to a never-never time before they married, when they were free, easy, single, and master of their fate, are delusional. Howard Jacobson day bad time way You don't remember people you love by the wise things they say but the silly things they do. Howard Jacobson you wise love people You know you are grown sentimental when you start counting the cygnets on the duck pond in the park to be sure none has perished since you counted last. Howard Jacobson duck start know you Where there are no spectators, there is no sponsorship. Where there is no sponsorship, there is no money. Where there is no money, there are no officials with fingers in the pot. The lesson to be learnt from this is simple. If we want honest sport, we have to stop watching it. Howard Jacobson stop money simple want I normally take a long time finding titles. I finish the book and go into sweats for months afterwards trying to think of them. Howard Jacobson long-time time long book The novel is a thing of irony and ambiguity. That's at the heart of 'J', a world that has stopped arguing with itself. We have to keep our equilibrium of hate, which is argument. But on the Internet, you find a unanimity of response, and in 'J,' there's a fear of that, that discourse becomes a statement of political or ideological belief. Howard Jacobson you hate fear heart That's the great test: if you're going to be a great comic writer, not a humorist, you've got to take it into the throat of grief. Can you make laughter and seriousness so close that they are the same thing? Howard Jacobson great you laughter grief A writer should never allow himself to be lulled out of the vigilance native to his profession. Howard Jacobson himself out never profession Looking back, I realise it wasn't only gym I dreaded at school. Every class was a torment. It wasn't knowledge I objected to but instruction. Why couldn't they just tell us what books to read and leave us to get on and read them? Howard Jacobson looking looking-back gym knowledge Once in a while, we need the hard Left to pipe up. Howard Jacobson need up left hard The queue and the fan are, of course, closely related in that fans will queue any length of time in any weather to see, touch, watch, hear, read, wear, or simply enjoy proximity to the object of their devotion. Howard Jacobson will enjoy time weather When emotion rules, every fool thinks that he is holy. Howard Jacobson rules he fool emotion If the great thing about the Internet is that it throws wide the doors of discussion to everyone, the bad thing about the Internet is that it throws wide the doors of discussion to everyone. Howard Jacobson bad great internet doors When I see ultra-Orthodox Jews stamping all over Jaffa, or when I see them deciding who is a Jew, I think: 'What's happened to the grand dream of Zionism?' I don't like to see ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel. What's wrong with Manchester? Howard Jacobson wrong see think dream Trump's hobbled vocabulary is now the incontestable stuff of comedy: not just how few his words but how narrow their range, from boastful to irked and back again. For satirists and impressionists, a president who addresses the American people in abbreviated tweetspeak is a gift. Howard Jacobson words gift comedy people I find Australia compelling and vexatious at the best of times; I've never been able to get it out of my system since going there as a young lecturer, and yet however much I love revisiting it, I always feel I have to leave again. Howard Jacobson feel never best love You don't divorce simply because your spouse has a number of qualities you dislike and on occasions makes your life uncomfortable. If you are reasonable, you view divorce as a measure of last resort. There are many steps you can take in the meantime. You might even call in a trained mediator. Howard Jacobson your view you life Not everyone is fortunate enough to earn their living playing. But what draws people to art and artists is a desire to enjoy the propinquity of play. For it is the very freedom of the imagination. And what else were we born to do, but imagine freely? Howard Jacobson freedom imagination people art
