Nick Hornby Quotes - Page 2

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I don't even feel as if I'm the center of my own world, so how am I supposed to feel as though I'm the center of anyone else's?

Nick Hornby

World, Feels, My Own

Nick Hornby (1996). “High Fidelity”, p.299, Penguin

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Love, it turns out, is as undemocratic as money, so it accumulates around people who have plenty of it already: the sane, the healthy, the lovable.

Nick Hornby

People, Healthy, Lovable

Nick Hornby (2005). “How to be Good”, p.214, Penguin UK

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Most people have a rope that ties them to someone, and that rope can be short or it can be long. (Be long. Belong. Get it?) You don't know how long, though. It's not your choice.

Nick Hornby

Ties, Long, People

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I love the relationship that anyone has with music ... because there's something in us that is beyond the reach of words, something that eludes and defies our best attempts to spit it out. ... It's the best part of us probably.

Nick Hornby

Music, Elude, Spit

Nick Hornby (2003). “31 songs”, Viking Books

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He has the personality of a child prodigy, but no discernable talent.

Nick Hornby

Children, Personality, Talent

Nick Hornby (2005). “How to be Good”, p.40, Penguin UK

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I have less time, less tolerance for bullshit, more interest in good taste, more confidence in my own judgement. The culture with which I surround myself is a reflection of my personality and the circumstances of my life, which is in part how it should be.

Nick Hornby

Reflection, Bullshit, Personality

Nick Hornby (2003). “Songbook”, p.22, Penguin

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We all spend so much time not saying what we want, because we know we can't have it. And because it sounds ungracious, or ungrateful, or disloyal, or childish, or banal. Or because we're so desperate to pretend that things are OK, really, that confessing to ourselves they're not looks like a bad move. Go on, say what you want. ... Whatever it is, say it to yourself. The truth will set you free. Either that or it'll get you a punch in the nose. Surviving in whatever life you're living means lying, and lying corrodes the soul, so take a break from the lies for just one minute.

Nick Hornby

Lying, Moving, Mean

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Sarcasm and compassion are two of the qualities that make life on Earth tolerable.

Nick Hornby

Sarcasm, Compassion, Two

Nick Hornby (2003). “Songbook”, p.123, Penguin

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I'm a good person. In most ways. But I'm beginning to think that being a good person in most ways doesn't count for anything very much, if you're a bad person in one way.

Nick Hornby

Thinking, Way, Good Person

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...self-consciousness is a man's worst enemy.

Nick Hornby

Men, Worst Enemy, Self

Nick Hornby (1996). “High Fidelity”, p.131, Penguin

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One thing about great art: it made you love people more, forgive them their petty transgressions. It worked in the way that religion was supposed to, if you thought about it.

Nick Hornby

Art, People, Forgiving

"Juliet, Naked". Book by Nick Hornby, www.npr.org. 2009.

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You don't ask people with knives in their stomachs what would make them happy; happiness is no longer the point. It's all about survival; it's all about whether you pull the knife out and bleed to death or keep it in.

Nick Hornby

Life, Happiness, Knives

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We can't be as good as we'd want to, so the question then becomes, how do we cope with our own badness?

Nick Hornby

Want, Badness

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Is it wrong, wanting to be at home with your record collection? It's not like collecting records is like collecting stamps, or beermats, or antique thimbles. There's a whole world in here, a nicer, dirtier, more violent, more peaceful, more colorful, sleazier, more dangerous, more loving world than the world I live in; there is history, and geography, and poetry, and countless other things I should have studied at school, including music.

Nick Hornby

Home, School, Should Have

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I can see that now. I can see everything once it’s already happened — I’m very good at the past. It’s the present I can’t understand.

Nick Hornby

Past, Very Good, Happened

Nick Hornby (1996). “High Fidelity”, p.95, Penguin

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I couldn’t bear to think about the proper future, so I just tried to make things better for the next twenty minutes or so, over and over again.

Nick Hornby

Life, Thinking, Twenties

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That’s the thing with the young these days, isn’t it? They watch too many happy endings. Everything has to be wrapped up, with a smile and a tear and a wave. Everyone has learned, found love, seen the error of their ways, discovered the joys of monogamy, or fatherhood, or filial duty, or life itself. In my day, people got shot at the end of films, after learning only that life is hollow, dismal, brutish, and short.

Nick Hornby

Errors, People, Joy

"A Long Way Down". Book by Nick Hornby, June 7, 2005.

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There isn't so much to be afraid of, out there. I can remember thinking it was funny to find that out, on the last night of my life; I'd spent the rest of it being afraid of everything.

Nick Hornby

Fear, Night, Thinking

"A Long Way Down". Book by Nick Hornby, www.npr.org. 2005.

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One could argue that most of the trouble in the world is caused by introspection.

Nick Hornby

Pride, World, Arguing

"A Long Way Down". Book by Nick Hornby, May 7, 2005.

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Did I do and say these things? Yes, I did. Are there any mitigating circumstances? Not really, unless any circumstances {in other words, context) can be regarded as mitigating. And before you judge, although you have probably already done so, go away and write down the four worst things you have done to a partner, even if - especially if - your partner doesn't know about them. Don't dress things up, or try to explain them; just write them down, in a list, in the plainest language possible. Finished? Ok, so who's the arsehole now?

Nick Hornby

Writing, Judging, Going Away

Nick Hornby (1996). “High Fidelity”, p.103, Penguin

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Over the last couple of years, the photos of me when I was a kid... well, they've started to give me a little pang or something - not unhappiness, exactly, but some kind of quiet, deep regret... I keep wanting to apologize to the little guy: "I'm sorry, I've let you down. I was the person who was supposed to look after you, but I blew it: I made wrong decisions at bad times, and I turned you into me.

Nick Hornby

Sorry, Couple, Regret

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Look at all the things that can go wrong for men. There’s the nothing-happening-at-all problem, the too-much-happening-too-soon problem, the dismal-droop-after-a-promising-beginning problem; there’s the size-doesn’t-matter-except-in-my-case problem, the failing-to-deliver-the-goods problem…and what do women have to worry about? A handful of cellulite? Join the club. A spot of I-wonder-how-I-rank? Ditto.

Nick Hornby

Men, Worry, Looks

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Why does reading freak people out so much? Sure, I could be pretty anti-social when we were on the road, but if I was playing a Gameboy hour after hour, no one would be on my case. In my social circle, blowing up space monsters is socially acceptable in a way that American Pastoral isn't.

Nick Hornby

Reading, Circles, Space

"A Long Way Down". Book by Nick Hornby, 2005.

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You wouldn't believe that so much could change just because a relationship ended.

Nick Hornby

Believe

Nick Hornby (1999). “About a Boy”, p.15, Penguin

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And mostly all I have to say about these songs is that I love them, and want to sing along to them, and force other people to listen to them, and get cross when these other people don't like them as much as I do.

Nick Hornby

Song, People, Want

Nick Hornby (2003). “Songbook”, p.6, Penguin

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Born: April 17, 1957
Occupation: Novelist
Cite this Page: Citation

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