Sometimes it's best to speak from ignorance: that way, you can see the wood without being distracted by the trees.
Howard JacobsonRead
You fall in love differently when you are young and far from home in a seductive place. You fall in love with the very air you breathe, and the vivid colours and the unbearably sweet sensation of distance and unaccustomedness.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Falling in love is influenced by youth and the sensations of new experiences.
This quote expresses how the experience of falling in love changes when one is young and in an unfamiliar, enchanting environment. It emphasizes how the beauty of the surroundings and the feeling of being away from home can intensify emotions, leading to a deeper and more visceral connection with love and life itself.
Themes
LoveYouthExperienceDistanceSensations
In practice
Example use cases
You could use this quote in a speech about the transformative power of travel and new experiences.
More from Howard Jacobson
All quotes →I think one of the main reasons I write is to do better than ranting. The ranting is the opinion, and the writing is not the opinion. I always say that people's opinions are the worst things about them. The words demand a dignity.
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How do you explain to somebody who doesn't understand that you don't build a library to read. A library is a resource. Something you go to, for reference, as and when. But also something you simply look at, because it gives you succour, answers to some idea of who you are or, more to the point, who you would like to be, who you will be once you own every book you need to own.
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It is no judgement of a thing outside yourself to say it makes you ill. The wise reader knows that every pronouncement is, to some degree, an act of self-exposure; the book you find too challenging might only show how ill-equipped you are to face its challenge.
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In my experience, every book you write changes the conditions in which you write the next.
Howard JacobsonRead
For a lot of readers these days, a book is something you have to agree or disagree with. But you can't agree with a novel. For my generation, it was assumed that a book is a dramatic thing, that the eye of the book is not telling you what to think.
Howard JacobsonRead
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