Why is failure the first thing I think of when I find myself in this sort of situation? Why can't I just enjoy myself? But if you have to ask the question, then you know you're lost: self-consciousness is a man's worst enemy. Already I'm wondering whether she's as aware of my erection as I am.
Nick HornbyI couldnโt 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 HornbyThe artistic temperament is particularly unhelpful if it is just that, with no end product.
Nick HornbySentimental music has this great way of taking you back somewhere at the same time that it takes you forward, so you feel nostagic and hopeful all at the same time.
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 Hornby