Howard Jacobson Quotes

I think the short story is a very underrated art form. We know that novels deserve respect.

Poetry, fiction as novels or short stories - these are autonomous as created by their authors. They should stand on their own, like pieces of furniture that should be judged as to their usefulness, elegance.

A book makes claims of literary art.

Literary fiction - if we must use the term - is not the plotless, meandering indulgence that its detractors would have you believe.

I'll take any story if it's good.

I read a lot of literary theory when I was in graduate school, especially about novels, and the best book I ever read about endings was Peter Brooks' 'Reading for the Plot. '

As far as I am concerned, I write novels, and other people can do the labelling.

Size has nothing to do with literature. All legs are long enough to touch the ground, and all books are big enough to fill their covers.

I've had a tough time with Pynchon. I liked him very much when I first read him. I liked him less with each book. He got denser and more complex in a way that didn't really pay off.

Bleak House is just the most astounding piece of work. There's huge, visionary poetry in it.

A novel that features real people is complicated, but in the end, that extra challenge is all for the good.

All good Literature rests primarily on insight.

A good novel is a good novel, pointe finale. And I think what I'm writing is exactly that.

I do have the sense that, although there may be no one way to write a novel, there are many novelists who are in fact part of some sort of larger literary community, whether in the form of a writing group or an MFA program, to name two of the more common forms.

As long as your storytelling and emotional depth are intact, that's what people will focus on.

Novelists should be like scientists, dissecting the cadaver.

I don't read much nonfiction because the nonfiction I do read always seems to be so badly written. What I enjoy about fiction - the great gift of fiction - is that it gives language an opportunity to happen.

I spend my life writing fiction, so reading fiction isn't much of an escape. That's not always true, but I don't read much contemporary fiction.

A novelist writes a novel, and people read it. But reading is a solitary act. While it may elicit a varied and personal response, the communal nature of the audience is like having five hundred people read your novel and respond to it at the same time. I find that thrilling.

Sometimes people write novels and they just be so wordy and so self-absorbed.

There are scenes from books I'm happy with. I tend to think my books are all broken. But then my favourite reads are almost always books that don't, in the end, pull off what they set out to do.

A first novel should be brash and ambitious, and announce the arrival of a new talent.

Real novelists, those we admire, those we consider timeless in their language and character and scene, those who receive accolades for inventive language and form, have writing lives we imagine in specific ways.

All topics, issues, and subjects in 'The Room' add to the depth of the characters in the movie, and they are equally important.

I read many wonderful novels, though I now find the idea of literary fiction obsolete.