Russell Hoban Quotes

Quotes about:

• There must be a lot of people in the world being wondered about by people who don't see them anymore.

  Russell Hoban

  People, World

  "Turtle Diary". Book by Russell Hoban, www.slate.com. 1975.

  47 Copy quote

• Language is an archaeological vehicle... the language we speak is a whole palimpsest of human effort and history.

  Russell Hoban

  History, Effort, Language

  26 Copy quote

• After all, when you come right down to it, how many people speak the same language even when they speak the same language?

  Russell Hoban

  Inspirational, Communication, People

  Russell Hoban (2012). “The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz”, p.146, Bloomsbury Publishing

  19 Copy quote

• The things that matter don't necessarily make sense.

  Russell Hoban

  Matter, Things That Matter, Make Sense

  Russell Hoban (2012). “The Turtle Diary”, p.148, A&C Black

  7 Copy quote

• Words have a life; without response they die.

  Russell Hoban

  Response, Dies

  10 Copy quote

• What a weird thing smoking is and I can't stop it. I feel cosy, have a sense of well-being when I'm smoking, poisoning myself, killing myself slowly. Not so slowly maybe. I have all kinds of pains I don't want to know about and I know that's what they're from. But when I don't smoke I scarcely feel as if I'm living. I don't feel as if I'm living unless I'm killing myself.

  Russell Hoban

  Pain, Smoking, Want

  Russell Hoban (2012). “The Turtle Diary”, p.21, A&C Black

  11 Copy quote

• The Zoo is a prison for animals who have been sentenced without trial and I feel guilty because I do nothing about it. But there it was, I wanted to see an oyster-catcher and I was no better than the people who'd caged oyster-catchers for me to see.

  Russell Hoban

  Zoos, Freedom, Animal

  "The Turtle Diary".

  80 Copy quote

• Too-lateness, I realized, has nothing to do with age. It’s a relation of self to the moment. Or not, depending on the person and the moment. Perhaps there even comes a time when it’s no longer too late for anything. Perhaps, even, most times are too early for most things, and most of life has to go by before it’s time for almost anything and too late for almost nothing. Nothing to lose, the present moment to gain, the integration with long-delayed Now.

  Russell Hoban

  Self, Long, Age

  Russell Hoban (1999). “A Russell Hoban omnibus”, Indiana Univ Pr

  8 Copy quote

• An idea is an eye given by God for the seeing of God. Some of these eyes we cannot bear to look out of; we blind them as quickly as possible.

  Russell Hoban

  God, Eye, Ideas

  Russell Hoban (2012). “Pilgermann”, p.99, Bloomsbury Publishing

  7 Copy quote

• When I write a book, I don't have a plan or an outline. The characters move the action, and the action develops the characters. When I write a book, I become an actor, really, taking the role of the person who is speaking or acting at the time, and so their reactions to whatever they see are my reactions.

  Russell Hoban

  Moving, Book, Writing

  Source: www.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• Explorers have to be ready to die lost.

  Russell Hoban

  Lost, Ready, Explorers

  7 Copy quote

• I'll never retire. They'll have to take my computer out of my cold, dead hands. I'm addicted to writing. I feel physically unwell if I'm not doing it.

  Russell Hoban

  Writing, Cold, Computer

  Source: www.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• I'd always assumed I was the central character in my own story, but now it occured to me I might in fact be only a minor character in someone else's.

  Russell Hoban

  Character, Stories, Might

  Russell Hoban (2000). “The Turtle Diary”, p.174, A&C Black

  6 Copy quote

• Nothing to be done really about animals. Anything you do looks foolish. The answer isn't in us. It's almost as if were put here on earth to show how silly they aren't.

  Russell Hoban

  Stupid, Silly, Loss

  Russell Hoban (2012). “The Turtle Diary”, p.146, A&C Black

  9 Copy quote

• I believe that most of us would like to be thought well of by horses.

  Russell Hoban

  Horse, Believe, I Believe

  Russell Hoban (1992). “The moment under the moment: stories, a libretto, essays and sketches”, Vintage

  7 Copy quote

• Time's arrow, we are told, is a one-way thing. . . Memory's arrow, like the needle of a compass too close to a lodestone, spins in all directions.

  Russell Hoban

  Memories, Arrows, Way

  Russell Hoban (2012). “Amaryllis Night and Day”, p.66, Bloomsbury Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• The first thing I would say to young writers is, "Don't do it, unless you can't stand not to do it." And the second thing I would say is, "If you do do it, and get into it, the constant rule you should have in mind is to explore your material." It sounds simple, but it isn't, because people often want to get from A to B, and they don't stop to look at what is in the material.

  Russell Hoban

  Simple, People, Mind

  Source: www.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• Sometimes I think that the biggest difference between men and women is that more men need to seek out some terrible lurking thing in existence and hurl themselves upon it. Women know where it lives but they can let it alone.

  Russell Hoban

  Men, Thinking, Differences

  Russell Hoban (2012). “The Turtle Diary”, p.65, A&C Black

  56 Copy quote

• If reality had a stage door I'd hang around there to see what comes out after the show.

  Russell Hoban

  Reality, Doors, Stage

  Russell Hoban (2012). “Amaryllis Night and Day”, p.5, Bloomsbury Publishing

  4 Copy quote

• Fidelity is a matter of perception; nobody is unfaithful to the sea or to mountains or to death: once recognized they fill the heart.

  Russell Hoban

  Heart, Sea, Perception

  Russell Hoban (2012). “The Medusa Frequency”, p.70, A&C Black

  4 Copy quote

• Usually my starting point is something that I've seen. It might be a painting, it might be an object. But they always start from a definite sensory experience.

  Russell Hoban

  Painting

  Source: www.avclub.com

  4 Copy quote

• When you suffer an attack of nerves you're being attacked by the nervous system. What chance has a man got against a system?.

  Russell Hoban

  Men, Worry, Suffering

  The Lion of Boaz-Jachin and Jachin-Boaz Ch. 13

  8 Copy quote

• There are situations in life to which the only satisfactory response is a physically violent one. If you don't make that response, you continually relive the unresolved situation over and over in your life.

  Russell Hoban

  Situations In Life, Violence, Violent

  8 Copy quote

• And now it seems she's on my wavelength. That's all I need. My mind isn't much of a comfort to me but at least I thought it was private.

  Russell Hoban

  Art, Philosophy, History

  Russell Hoban (2012). “The Turtle Diary”, p.76, A&C Black

  7 Copy quote

• Is there an existence that is only mine?

  Russell Hoban

  Conformity, Existence, Mines

  Russell Hoban (2012). “Kleinzeit”, p.134, A&C Black

  4 Copy quote

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