British - Novelist | August 25, 1942 -
Alone of prejudices, anti-Zionism is sacrosanct. How very dare we distinguish the motivation of one sort from another? Or question, in any instance, an anti-Zionist's good faith? In fact, what determines whether anti-Zionism is anti-Semitic is the nature of it.
Howard Jacobson
NatureGoodFaithAloneMotivation
The environment in which I studied was so safe, I thought I would die from the boredom of it.
ThoughtDieEnvironmentBoredomSafe
I had worked on the markets with my father before going to university, so I possessed an apparent street-smartness, had access to a colourful costermonger vocabulary, and tried passing myself off as a bit of spiv. But my contemporaries saw through me. At heart, they knew I was as bookish and oversensitive as they were.
FatherHeartMyselfMeVocabulary
Sensitivity doesn't necessarily make you easy to get on with.
EasyYouGetMakeSensitivity
Many a woman has suffered at the hands of a Paul Morel. There's more than one way of being brutal.
WomanHandsWayMoreBeingThan
It's a weakness of mine to forget what it is I've just been talking about so that when people make witty allusions to it, I stare at them open-mouthed, not knowing what they're talking about.
PeopleWeaknessTalkingNot Knowing
A writer should never allow himself to be lulled out of the vigilance native to his profession.
NeverOutWriterAllowVigilance
In anticipation of a meal - supposing we are with the ideal companion at the best table in the perfect restaurant - we might indeed postpone sadness. And maybe even halfway through, we will remain in tolerably high spirits, with dessert still to come. But as we near the end of eating, we begin to feel anticipatory twinges of anticlimax.
BestEatingSadnessEndRestaurant
If it's bathos you want - and I suspect we are all bathos junkies in the end - nothing gives it to you quite like watching sport. Unless it's playing sport.
EndYouWantNothingWatchingLike
You don't have to be in pursuit of a body beautiful to wish yourself to be the flexuously willowy creature you once were or, failing that, just to be able to pick up something you have dropped.
BeautifulYourselfWishYouBodyUp
I once belonged to a health club, where it cost me £2,000 a year to amble on a treadmill for half an hour a week and sit and read Grazia in the cooling-off area.
HealthMeWeekYearClubCost
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?
KnowledgeSchoolLooking BackLooking
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