Andrew O'Hagan Quotes

Andrew O'Hagan
Andrew O'Hagan
Scottish Novelist
Born: 1968
Before Believe Good People Sense You
When you grow up by the sea, you spend a good deal of time looking at the horizon. You wonder what on Earth the waves might bring - and where the sea might deposit you - until one day you know you have lived between two places, the scene of arrival and the point of departure. Andrew O'Hagan
Time Good Day You Looking Spend Waves Earth One Day Horizon Scene Point Between Know Until Deal Arrival Up Wonder Departure Where Deposit Places Might Sea Good Deal Grow Grow Up Lived Bring Two
When I was growing up, there was a feeling in one's living room as much as in one's local gallery that a little elitism was good for the soul. Andrew O'Hagan
Good Soul Feeling Living Local Up Little Room Gallery Much Growing Growing Up Living Room Elitism
We now live in the era of fake consensus, or phoney populism, a condition in which galleries and homes are seen to succeed best where they manage feelings of non-difference. Andrew O'Hagan
Best Seen Feelings Live Phoney Fake Era Condition Manage Where Which Succeed Galleries Now Homes Consensus
Long before the arrival of reality TV - before speed cameras, before recording angels on buses and lampposts - I felt I was living in a country that already knew how to watch itself. It was journalism that held the responsibility for seeing who we were and noticing what we did. Andrew O'Hagan
Reality Responsibility Long Recording Country Before Living Speed TV Seeing Angels Knew Journalism Felt How Arrival Were Cameras Itself Did Buses Reality TV Held Noticing Who Watch
A living museum must surely see itself as a locus of argument. A breathing art institution is not a lockup but a moveable feast. Andrew O'Hagan
Art Argument Living Must See Feast Institution Surely Itself Breathing Museum
As a writer I care about America, and care about its carelessness. Andrew O'Hagan
Care Carelessness I Care About Writer America
In Britain, the great hidden secret of talking animals and children's literature is how political it was in its bones, beneath the obvious cuteness. Andrew O'Hagan
Great Political Animals Beneath Secret Hidden Obvious Talking How Children Literature Britain Bones
A theatre is not a blank page for editorial, it is not a soapbox or a Tannoy system: it is a conscience that wakes with what is happening in the space, and wakes further still in response to what people are making of it. Andrew O'Hagan
Theatre People Space Further System Response Blank Blank Page Making Editorial Still Wakes Happening Soapbox Page Conscience
A good nationalism has to depend on a principle of the common people, on myths of a struggling commonality. Andrew O'Hagan
Good People Depend Nationalism Struggling Myths Principle Common Common People Commonality
You'll find that no pride is greater than the pride that comes with being thick. Britain is filled with people who are really proud of their stupidity. Andrew O'Hagan
You People Pride Stupidity Find Greater Proud Than Being Really Who Filled Thick Britain
As an old creative industry full of cruelty and moral sense, British journalism once flourished on the imperative that people required the truth in order to survive. But people don't require that now. They want sensation and they want it for nothing. Andrew O'Hagan
Truth Creative People Old Cruelty Sense Nothing Once Moral Moral Sense Imperative Journalism Industry Survive Sensation Order Want To Survive Require Required Full Now British
The idea that people in novels should be more sympathetic than people in life simply baffles me. Andrew O'Hagan
Life Me People More Simply Idea Than Should Novels Sympathetic
The working class of England today have no vision of society beyond the acquisitive - no version of themselves or their habits as anything other than transitional, on their way up or on their way out. The working class, at best, is a waiting room for people who aim to become middle class if possible. Andrew O'Hagan
Today Best Class Waiting People Vision Become Society Other Aim Way Out Possible Habits Beyond Version Up Than Middle Middle Class Anything Room Transitional Themselves Working Working-Class England Who
There's a horrible fallacy that exists in the popular discussion of fiction these days: the idea that a successful central character need be 'likeable' or 'sympathetic'. It is surely more important that they be human, no? More crucial that they breathe? Andrew O'Hagan
Character Important Horrible More Crucial Idea Days Likeable Surely Fallacy Exists Discussion Human Fiction Central Breathe Successful Popular Need Sympathetic
Interviewing is not a democratic art. Andrew O'Hagan
Art Interviewing Democratic
I was 10 when I realised I couldn't stand football. I'd tried, obviously, before this - no one wants to give in to social pariah-hood without a fight. I had stood frozen on pitches, done some running about and shouted a lot, as though I cared. Andrew O'Hagan
Fight Before Though Running Tried Some About Give Had No-One Football Obviously Without Lot Done Stood Pitches Frozen Wants Realised Social Stand Cared
The working class of England take their deracination completely for granted. Disenchantment is the happy code that informs every byway of the underclass: service jobs, celebrity dreams, Lotto wins, leisured poverty on pre-crunch credit cards, it's all there, part of the story of an English people whose grandparents never had it so good. Andrew O'Hagan
Service Dreams Good Class Happy People Poverty Every Jobs Wins Take Never Had Part Celebrity Disenchantment Story Informs Working Grandparents Granted Working-Class England English English People Code Whose Credit Credit Cards Cards
When I was growing up, my idea of a writer was someone like Sven Hassel, that mysterious Danish author who wrote thrillers about men clambering over walls and getting tangled in barbed wire. Andrew O'Hagan
Walls Men Danish About Someone Thrillers Mysterious Writer Wire Idea Over Like Wrote Tangled Up Author Getting Barbed Barbed Wire Who Growing Growing Up
Writing a novel is an act of self-annihilation as much as self-discovery. You can kill whole appetites and flood whole depths while plumbing them, but if you are serious about it you also get to put something into the world that wasn't quite there before. Andrew O'Hagan
You Writing World Before Plumbing About Something Put Self-Discovery Also Get Quite While Them Depths Much Act Whole Novel Serious Flood Appetites
The characters in 'Be Near Me' come from a genuine place, a Britain that is more than one country and more than one ideal. Andrew O'Hagan
Me Country One Country Characters More Ideal Come Genuine Than Place Near Britain
About
Site pages
Top Quotes
Authors
Today's birthdays
Copyright © Quotesia 2025