Quotessence
Home / Authors / Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby

Nick Hornby Quotes

Novelist

Filter quotes by topic

AllPeopleIfsKnowsBookFeelsWantReadingWayKindThinkingWorldFootballSeemsWritingLittlesLooksMusicEndsMenShould

Famous Nick Hornby Quotes

“The kind of love my mum talks about is full of worry and work and forgiving people and putting up with things and stuff like that. It's not a lot of fun, that's for sure. If that really is love, the kind my mum talks about, then nobody can ever know if they love somebody, can they? It seems like what she's saying is, if you're pretty sure you love somebody, the way I was sure in those few weeks, then you can't love them, because that isn't what love is. Trying to understand what she means by love would do your head in.”

PeopleIfsKnowsWayLoveTryingKindMeanSeemsFunStuffLove IsWorryWeekForgivingMumKinds Of LoveYou Re PrettyForgiving People
Author:Nick Hornby
Create image

“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.”

ThinkingWayNeedsLooksKindStillsDifferentUsedEnergyGivenGoneRelationshipViolentCrushHaltCalmer
Book:High Fidelity
Create image

“He loved Nirvana, but at his age they were kind of a guilty pleasure. All that rage and pain and self-hatred! Will got a bit...fed up sometimes, but he couldn't pretend it was anything stronger than that. So now he used loud angry rock music as a replacement for real feelings, rather than as an expression of them, and he didn't even mind very much. What good were real feelings anyway?”

MindKindRealSelfSometimesFeelingsAgePainUsedBitsPleasureRocksExpressionHatredStrongerAngryRageGuiltyLoudFedsRock MusicFed UpReplacementsSelf HatredGuilty PleasureReal Feelings
Book:About a Boy
Create image

“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.”

GivingYearsWellsLooksKindLittlesPersonsMadeKidsLastsGuyDecisionRegretCoupleQuietGive MeSorryUnhappinessApologizingI'm SorryBad TimesWrong DecisionPhoto Of MeDeep Regret
Author:Nick Hornby
Create image

“[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 queue­jumping. But if someone jumps the queue at the Post Office, people tut. Or sometimes they say, “Excuse me, I was here first.” They don't say, “You will be consumed by hellfire for all eternity.” That would be a bit strong.”

PeopleIfsFirstsKindI CanSometimesWould BeStrongBitsCan DoSinOne ThingOfficeEternitySuicideExcusePostsJumpingConsumedExcuse MeMarvellousPost OfficeQueues
Author:Nick Hornby
Create image

“I have always been accused of taking the things I love – football, of course, but also books and records – 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 – maybe it’s those voices I can hear when I write. ‘You’re a WANKER, X.’ ‘The Booker Prize? THE BOOKER PRIZE? They should give that to me for having to read you.”

MenWayGivingFeelsShouldWritingKindMeanI CanBookCoursesVoiceRecordsFootballTaughtAngryWestCriticsBitterDesperatePrizeAccusedArsenalThings I LoveLukewarmI Love Football
Author:Nick Hornby
Create image

“We had no irony when it came to girls, though. There was just no time to develop it. One moment they weren't there, not in any form that interested us, anyway, and the next you couldn't miss them; they were everywhere, all over the place. One moment you wanted to clonk them on the head for being your sister, or someone else's sister, and the next you wanted to....actually, we didn't know what we wanted next, but it was something. Almost overnight, all these sisters (there was no other kind of girl, not yet)had become interesting, disturbing, even.”

KnowsKindMomentsWantedFormGirlNextInterestingMissingIronyDisturbingKind Of Girl
Book:High Fidelity
Create image