What harm has he ever done to you?' 'You know what harm he's done me. He offended me with his terrible taste. Nick Hornby More Quotes by Nick Hornby More Quotes From Nick Hornby When you're unhappy, I guess everything in the world - reading, eating, sleeping - has something buried somewhere inside it that just makes you unhappier. Nick Hornby unhappy reading sleep Maybe we all live life at too high a pitch, those of us who absorb emotional things all day, and as mere consequence we can never feel merely content: we have to be unhappy, or ecstatically, head-over-heels happy, and those states are difficult to achieve within a stable, solid relationship. Nick Hornby live-life emotional unhappy One has so many more opinions about what has gone wrong than about what is perfect. Nick Hornby opinion gone perfect I'd stay there, or not, and I'd eat, or not, and I'd drink, or not, and go home, or not, and what I did or didn't do wouldn't matter to anyone at all. And I walked for most of the day. Do people get sad on holiday sometimes? I can imagine they do, having all that time to think. Nick Hornby holiday home thinking Sometimes it's moments like that, real complicated moments, absorbing moments, that make you realize that even hard times have things in them that make you feel alive. And then there's music, and girls, and drugs, and homeless people who've read Pauline Kael, and wah-wah pedals, and English potato chip flavors, and I haven't even read Martin Chuzzlewit yet... There's plenty out there. Nick Hornby hard-times girl real I'd thought I'd live with my wife, but I couldn't find one. Nick Hornby my-wife wife There had been times when he knew, somewhere in him, that he would get used to it, whatever it was, because he had learnt that some hard things became softer after a very little while. Nick Hornby used littles life I had forgotten that Jess felt about long words the way that racists feel about black people: She hated them, and wanted to send them back from where they came from. Nick Hornby black long people I'm very good at the past. It's the present I can't understand. Nick Hornby very-good i-can past No man is an island. Nick Hornby islands men Why is failure the first thing I think of when I find myself in this sort of situation? Why can't I just enjoy myself? But if you have to ask the question, then you know you're lost: self-consciousness is a man's worst enemy. Already I'm wondering whether she's as aware of my erection as I am. Nick Hornby worst-enemy men thinking The easiest thing to write was 'Fever Pitch' because it was a memoir. Nick Hornby write because memoir fever I think that every book that's in a bookstore should entertain in some way. Nick Hornby some think book way I'm quite gloomy. I just am one of those people, vaguely lugubrious. Nick Hornby quite just gloomy people I used to be a teacher, and I know how difficult it is to strike a balance between focused conversation and an atmosphere which prevents creativity and thought. Nick Hornby know creativity balance teacher Sometimes when people are attached to a project, they need persuading to stay attached, and then, in retrospect, they're not the right person. Nick Hornby person right-person sometimes people The Oscars are like a political campaign. You have to have the right candidates, and the people in Hollywood know what they are. Nick Hornby know you political people We need a romantic illusion to embark on relationships in the first place. After that, they survive or fail for other, more practical reasons. Nick Hornby survive place illusion romantic If adults are not enjoying something they're doing in their leisure time, they should stop doing it. Nick Hornby stop something doing time I write slowly. I can't move on until I've got a paragraph right. Nick Hornby move-on right got write