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Jonathan Coe Quotes
Jonathan Coe Quotes
Jonathan Coe
English
Novelist
Born:
Aug 19
,
1961
Books
Happy
Me
Time
Writing
You
Related authors:
Aldous Huxley
Charles Dickens
E. M. Forster
J. R. R. Tolkien
Thomas Hardy
William Golding
William Makepeace Thackeray
I'm one of those unlucky people who had a happy childhood.
Jonathan Coe
Happy
People
Unlucky
Those
Had
Childhood
Happy Childhood
Who
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
Relationships
Books
France
Markets
UK
Those
Something
Outside
Countries
Know
Also
Learned
Italy
Personal
Closest
Where
Biggest
Personal Relationships
Whether
Two
Coincidence
I became quite taken over by Johnson's personality at some points while writing the biography, and since I went straight on to The Closed Circle afterwards, I did sometimes feel I could hear him whispering in my ear while I was working on it.
Jonathan Coe
Writing
Personality
Sometimes
Circle
Closed
Some
Johnson
Could
Points
Taken
Feel
Over
Since
Him
Became
Hear
Did
Quite
Afterwards
While
Straight
Whispering
Working
Ear
Biography
The more melancholy side of my literary personality is much in tune with BS Johnson's.
Jonathan Coe
Personality
Side
Melancholy
More
Johnson
Literary
Tune
Much
Writers never feel comfortable having labels attached to them, however accurate they are.
Jonathan Coe
Having
Attached
Writers
Never
Feel
Comfortable
However
Labels
Accurate
Them
But I have always - ever since The Accidental Woman - written novels about individuals attempting to make choices in the context of situations over which they have no control.
Jonathan Coe
Woman
Control
No Control
About
Attempting
Written
Individuals
Over
Since
Make
Always
Context
Accidental
Situations
Which
Choices
Novels
Ever
It seems to me that you would have to write a novel on a very small, intimate scale for it not to become political.
Jonathan Coe
Me
You
Political
Become
Intimate
Scale
Would
Seems
Small
Write
Very
Novel
As soon as you start writing about how human beings interact with each other socially, you're into politics, aren't you?
Jonathan Coe
Politics
You
Writing
Other
About
Soon
How
Human
Interact
Human Beings
Beings
Each
Socially
Start
I think it's also the case that I'm not as widely travelled, or as well-educated in history, as most of the other novelists I meet: so I have to write about my own country, at the present time, because it's more or less all I know about!
Jonathan Coe
Time
History
Country
Own
Think
Other
Meet
About
Case
My Own
More
More Or Less
Write
Know
Most
Also
Because
Well-Educated
Less
Novelists
Travelled
Present
Widely
Present Time
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
Life
Work
Happy
Culture
Value
Affection
Cynical
Live
Too
Ourselves
Blair
Perfectly
Knowing
Comfortable
Empty
Comfortable Life
Real
Up
Ironic
Real Value
Meaning
Much
Created
Britain
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
Writing
Money
Wife
Live
Bits
Carve
Had
Picking
Journalism
Said
Off
Up
While
Little
Publisher
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
Time
Trouble
Books
Out
Write
Because
Same
Short
Same Time
Stories
Short Stories
Which
Turn
Novels
Why
Keeping
Things
The writer I feel the most affinity with - you said you felt my books are 19th century novels, I think they're 18th century novels - is Fielding, Henry Fielding, he's the guy who does it for me.
Jonathan Coe
Me
You
Think
Books
Guy
Writer
He
Feel
Most
Felt
Does
Said
Affinity
Century
Who
Novels
Henry
Thatcherism has become bigger than she ever was.
Jonathan Coe
Become
She
Than
Bigger
Ever
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Aldous Huxley
Charles Dickens
E. M. Forster
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