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Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby Quotes

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Famous Nick Hornby Quotes

“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.”

PeopleWayEndsFilmYoungLife IsJoyFoundWatchesTearsDutyShotsErrorsWaveThese DaysFatherhoodHollowHappy EndingsMonogamyFound LoveFilialFilial Duty
Author:Nick Hornby
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“Because music, like color, or a cloud, is neither intelligent nor unintelligent - it just is. The chord, the simplest building block for even the tritest, silliest chart song, is a beautiful, perfect, mysterious thing, and when an ill-read, uneducated, uncultured, emotionally illiterate boor puts a couple of them together, he has every chance of creating something wonderful and powerful. All I ask of music is that is sounds good.”

TogetherBeautifulSongAsksSoundChancePerfectPowerfulWonderfulBuildingColorCoupleCreatingMusic IsIntelligentCloudsIllBlockMysteriousSimplestChordsIlliterateUneducatedBuilding BlocksCreating SomethingUnintelligentMysterious Things
Book:31 songs
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“Being a reader is sort of like being president, except reading involves fewer state dinners, usually. You have this agenda you want to get through, but you get distracted by life events, e.g., books arriving in the mail/World War III, and you are temporarily deflected from your chosen path.”

WorldWantBookWarStatesReadingPresidentPathEventsReaderDinnerChosenWar Of The WorldsAgendasFewerMailDistractedArrivingChosen Path
Book:The Polysyllabic Spree
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“That is another chamber of my heart that shows no electrical activity - the chamber that used to flicker into life when I saw a film that moved me, or read a book that inspired me, or listened to music that made me want to cry. I closed that chamber myself, for all the usual reasons. And now I seem to have made a pact with some philistine devil: if I don't attempt to re-open it, I will be allowed just enough energy and optimism to get through a working day without wanting to hang myself.”

IfsWantHeartMadeBookReasonEnoughShowsSeemsFilmUsedEnergySawsCryMy HeartActivityDevilOptimismMovedInspiredUsualChamberElectricalPactFlickerPhilistinesChamber Music
Author:Nick Hornby
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“My own feeling about JJ, without knowing anything about him, was that he might have been a gay person, because he had long hair and spoke American. A lot of Americans are gay people, aren’t they? I know they didn’t invent gayness, because they say that was the Greeks. But they helped bring it back into fashion. Being gay was a bit like the Olympics: it disappeared in ancient times, and then they brought it back in the twentieth century. Anyway, I didn’t know anything about gays, so I just presumed they were all unhappy and wanted to kill themselves.”

PeopleKnowsPersonsLongHas BeensFeelingsMightWantedBitsMy OwnKnowingCenturyFashionHairGayAncientUnhappyGreekSpokesOlympicsMight Have BeenTwentieth CenturyGay PeopleBeing GayLong HairAncient TimesGayness
Author:Nick Hornby
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“I used to think--and given the way we ended up, maybe I still do--that all relationships need the kind of violent shove that a crush brings, just to get you started and to push you over the humps. And then, when the energy from that shove has gone and you come to something approaching a halt, you have to look around and see what you've got. It could be something completely different, it could be something roughly the same, but gentler and calmer, or it could be nothing at all.”

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Book:High Fidelity
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“Hey, great idea: if you have kids, give your partner reading vouchers next Christmas. Each voucher entitles the bearer to two hours' reading time *while the kids are awake*. It might look like a cheapskate present, but parents will appreciate that it costs more in real terms than a Lamborghini.”

IfsGivingLooksTwoIdeasRealMightKidsReadingNextParentTermHoursCostAppreciatePartnersChristmasHeyAwakeGreat IdeaVouchersLamborghiniCheapskates
Book:The Polysyllabic Spree
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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?”

IfsKnowsWritingTryingDoneLanguageFourWorstJudgingCircumstancesDressesFinishedListsPartnersGoing AwayWorst ThingsArseholes
Book:High Fidelity
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“Have you got any soul?" a woman asks the next afternoon. That depends, I feel like saying; some days yes, some days no. A few days ago I was right out; now I've got loads, too much, more than I can handle. I wish I could spread it a bit more evenly, I want to tell her, get a better balance, but I can't seem to get it sorted. I can see she wouldn't be interested in my internal stock control problems though, so I simply point to where I keep the soul I have, right by the exit, just next to the blues.”

WantFeelsI CanSoulProblemSeemsNextAsksWishBitsToo MuchDependsBalanceSpreadHandleInternalsAfternoonLoadExit
Book:High Fidelity
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