Philip Hensher Quotes & Sayings

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

The thing I truly object to," Kitty said, "and I know this sounds trivial and I don't care if it sounds a bit snobbish, but I don't care about these awful people and I do care about this. It's that the whole world now thinks about Hanmouth as being this sort of awful council estate and nothing else, and Hanmouth people like this awful Heidi and Micky people. Absolutely everything you read in the papers is about how they live in Hanmouth and, frankly, they don't. They live on the Ruskin estate where I've never been and I hope never to go anywhere near. — Philip Hensher

Emily and Fanny are doing their best to remain poker-stiff, firmly staring in their upright palanquins. But two hours on an elephant is as much as either of them can stand, and - after four times as long as that - they pine, they simply ache for the opportunity to complain, even more than the chance to rest. — Philip Hensher

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

Something very unusual, a chocolate-flavoured log of goats' cheese. "Made by lesbians in Wales," Sam had explained superfluously. — Philip Hensher

Depressing realization sets in. Writing was invented not by human beings but by accountants. Most of the early writing systems are records of how much crap people own, how much money they have, how much money they owe, and other lowering/boastful facts of human life. — Philip Hensher

If you don't say anything it can't become important, but if you say it everyone's ever after got to walk round it like a pile of rocks in the living room. — Philip Hensher

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

Why do we say 'the cockles of your heart'?" David said. "Nothing to do with whelks, I suppose. — Philip Hensher

Previously, gay life had seemed a merry series of cabinet reshuffles and rearrangements, in which everyone was single for a time, then paired off for a time. If you stood still with a welcoming smile on your face, sooner or later somebody would come over and sit on it. — Philip Hensher

It's material deprivation that starts all this off."
"They've got dishwashers, Miranda," Billa said. "They're not examples of material deprivation. — Philip Hensher

It happened to some people, that obsession with throwing their clothes off at an age when it would be best to keep them on. — Philip Hensher