Philip Hensher famous quotes

Last updated: Sep 5, 2024

I think you can tell when you meet someone whether they read novels. There's some hollowness if they don't.
-- Philip Hensher

#Thinking #Hollowness #Novel
It [fiction] allows us to see the world from the point of view of someone else and there has been quite a lot of neurological research that shows reading novels is actually good for you. It embeds you in society and makes you think about other people. People are certainly better at all sorts of things if they can hold a novel in their heads. It is quite a skill, but if you can't do it then you're missing out on something in life. I think you can tell, when you meet someone, whether they read novels or not. There is some little hollowness if they don't.
-- Philip Hensher

#Reading #Thinking #Views
The Humbling is not vintage Roth, despite its compelling premise. The bizarre series of episodes -- mostly sexual encounters with women -- which make up this short novel don't play to Roth's strengths. (...) The Humbling disappoints because it avoids these universal implications, and veers off into a baroque world of the unique and fantastic, never quite deigning to make its world concrete or to give its characters the honour of an independent will.
-- Philip Hensher

#Character #Independent #Unique
Fiction allows us to see the world from the point of view of someone else and there has been quite a lot of neurological research that shows reading novels is actually good for you. It embeds you in society and makes you think about other people. People are certainly better at all sorts of things if they can hold a novel in their heads. It is quite a skill, but if you can't do it then you're missing out on something in life. I think you can tell, when you meet someone, whether they read novels or not. There is some little hollowness if they don't.
-- Philip Hensher

#Reading #Thinking #Views

Goodbye, my almost lover. Goodbye, my hopeless dream. I'm trying not to think about you, can't you just let me be? So long, my luckless romance, my back is turned on you. Should've known you'd bring me heartache. Almost lovers always do.
Promise me you'll always remember: You're braver than you believe, and stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think.
The third-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the majority. The second-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking with the minority. The first-rate mind is only happy when it is thinking.
Life is not like a novel, but a novel can be like life. The best ones always are.
I invented the historical spy novel.
If you wrote a novel in South Africa which didn't concern the central issues, it wouldn't be worth publishing.
I take a lot from everywhere. I take from music, architecture, novels, and plays. Anywhere that hits you.
History is a novel for which the people is the author.
No one knows how to write a novel until it's been written
I save the best of myself for novels, and I believe it shows

Philip Hensher famous quotes

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