You spend Christmas at somebody's house, you worry about their operations, you give them hugs and kisses and flowers, you see them in their dressing gown...and then bang, that's it. Gone forever. And sooner or later there will be another mum, another Christmas, more varicose veins. They're all the same. Only the addresses, and the colors of the dressing gown, change.
Nick HornbyYou had to live in your own bubble. You couldn't force your way into someone else's, because then it wouldn't be a bubble any more.
Nick HornbyI have always been accused of taking the things I love โ football, of course, but also books and records โ much too seriously, and I do feel a kind of anger when I hear a bad record, or when someone is lukewarm about a book that means a lot to me. Perhaps it was these desperate, bitter men in the West Stand at Arsenal who taught me how to get angry in this way; and perhaps it is why I earn some of my living as a critic โ maybe itโs those voices I can hear when I write. โYouโre a WANKER, X.โ โThe Booker Prize? THE BOOKER PRIZE? They should give that to me for having to read you.
Nick HornbySequels are very rarely a good idea, and in any case, the success of the book changed my relationship with the club in some ways.
Nick Hornby[about suicide] And why is it the biggest sin of all? All your life you're told that you'll be going to this marvellous place when you pass on. And the one thing you can do to get you there a bit quicker is something that stops you getting there at all. Oh, I can see that it's a kind of queueยญjumping. But if someone jumps the queue at the Post Office, people tut. Or sometimes they say, โExcuse me, I was here first.โ They don't say, โYou will be consumed by hellfire for all eternity.โ That would be a bit strong.
Nick HornbyNo time spent with a book is ever entirely wasted, even if the experience is not a happy one: thereโs always something to be learned. Itโs just that, every now and again, you can hit a patch of reading that makes you feel as if youโre pootling about. [...] But what can you do about it? We donโt choose to waste our reading time; it just happens. The books let us down.
Nick Hornby