102 Howard Jacobson Quotes for You to Enjoy

Howard Jacobson

British Novelist

Born: Aug 25, 1942

Every Me People Think Will You

Related authors: Anne Bronte Charles Morgan Charlotte Bronte Hector Hugh Munro Helen Oyeyemi Jeanette Winterson Roald Dahl Zadie Smith

Think of the aged and bed-ridden Matisse cutting out strips of coloured paper, much as a child might, and investing them with a more than mortal vitality... Those strips of paper resonate because they prove that our materials don't determine in advance the worth of what we make. Howard Jacobson

Worth Resonate Think Our Paper Those Strips Out Vitality Determine More Coloured Advance Investing Mortal Make Because Prove Materials Than Child Aged Them Might Cutting Much

Rereading one's own novels after many years is always a fraught business, but when a novel has fallen out of print - 'The Very Model of a Man' is the only novel of mine that has - and so crops up infrequently in conversations with readers or indeed with oneself, revisiting it can be perilous. Howard Jacobson

Man Business Own Mine Indeed Out Fraught Crops Oneself Only Perilous Print Readers Always Fallen Years Up Very Revisiting Model After Conversations Many Novel Novels

Literature more often tells the story of impulses we don't act on than of ones we do. I could joke about the Cain and Abel story with my brother without expecting him to be worried, though it's always possible he was more anxious than he let on. Howard Jacobson

Our connection to the great myths of our natures is murky. A mother might see the Medea in herself without imagining she will ever do away with her children. Howard Jacobson

Great Mother Will Herself Our See Myths She Without Children Might Natures Connection Away Ever Her Murky Imagining

If the Jew transmogrified into the Devil for the medieval church, he retained his devilish characteristics as Christian sentiment found other places to express itself, early socialism being one of them. Howard Jacobson

Socialism Church Devil Sentiment Christian Other Characteristics He Devilish His Itself Being Places Them Express Found Early Jew Medieval

The presence of a Jew in any movement no more guarantees it to be innocent of antisemitism than guilty. And that applies to anti-Zionism, too. Anti-Zionist Jews exist, but that tells one nothing about anti-Zionism. Howard Jacobson

Innocent Nothing Too Jews Guilty Tells About More Exist Than Any Movement Presence Jew Guarantees

I was a 'reverence for life' man - 'see life steadily and see it whole' - in my days as a lecturer in English lit. We are, I argued, if not exactly 'saved' by reading, at least partially 'repaired' by it: made the better morally and existentially. Howard Jacobson

Life Man Better Made Reading Saved Exactly See Steadily Morally Argued Days Least Reverence Lecturer Lit English Whole

Reading literature remains a civilising activity, no matter that it's literature in which people do and say abominable things and the author curses like the very devil. What's at issue is how we describe the way the civilising works. Howard Jacobson

People Matter Devil Reading Way Say Remains Like How Issue Very Author Curses Literature Which Works Describe Activity Things

Again and again, Primo Levi's work is described as indispensable, essential, necessary. None of those terms overstate the case, but they do prepare readers new to Levi for a forbiddingly educative experience, making him a writer unlike all others and the experience of reading him a chore. Which it isn't. Howard Jacobson

Work Experience Reading Others Unlike Those Case Indispensable Writer New Terms Him Readers None Making Overstate Essential Which Again Chore Prepare Necessary Levi

There is much that makes one pause in 'If This is a Man', the record of Levi's 11-month incarceration in Auschwitz, much one cannot read without needing to lay aside the book and inhale the breath of common air. Howard Jacobson

Man Book Breath Air Record Lay Read Without Makes Auschwitz Common Cannot Aside Pause Much Incarceration Inhale Levi Needing

Show me a novel that's not comic, and I'll show you a novel that's not doing its job. Howard Jacobson

Me You Job Comic Doing Show Novel

For a lot of readers these days, a book is something you have to agree or disagree with. But you can't agree with a novel. For my generation, it was assumed that a book is a dramatic thing, that the eye of the book is not telling you what to think. Howard Jacobson

You Generation Book Disagree Think Assumed Dramatic Eye Telling My Generation Something Days Readers Lot Agree Novel Thing

With 'J', at a deep base level, there is still some comedy, but that masculinist voice that had driven so many of my novels I suddenly did not want to occupy. I wasn't reneging on it; I just didn't want to do it. Howard Jacobson

Comedy Some Voice Driven Had Occupy Still Did Just Want Deep Many Base Novels Suddenly Level

Passionate dissent from the will of the multitude should be respected, not derided. Howard Jacobson

Will Dissent Respected Passionate Should Multitude

It's always nice to be praised, and insofar as a prize is a form of praise, you're glad when you get it. Howard Jacobson

You Nice Insofar Glad Always Praise Praised Prize Get Form

Shakespeare's always been sitting on my back, since I began reading. And, certainly, as a writer, he's who I hear all the time. And he's almost indistinguishable now from the English language. I have no sense of what Shakespeare is like. I have no sense of the personality that is Shakespeare. I think, alone among writers, I don't know who he is. Howard Jacobson

Alone Time Personality Language Reading Sense Think Back Shakespeare Indistinguishable No Sense Writer Writers He Almost Since Like Know Always Hear Been Began Sitting Certainly English Who English Language Now Among

If you want a good life, don't succeed at anything too early or too well. And don't choose a profession that attracts money or attention. The minute people want to see you doing what you do, you're finished. Howard Jacobson

When demagogues and dictators ban art, this is the reason: art is the great solvent of obedient fundamentalism. Howard Jacobson

Art Great Obedient Solvent Ban Dictators Reason Fundamentalism

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

Money Simple Lesson Fingers Pot Sponsorship Sport Learnt Officials Stop Where Want Spectators Watching Honest

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 Grief Laughter Same Thing Humorist Throat Writer Take Make Comic Got Test Close Same Going Seriousness Thing

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

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