83 Quotes by Jonathan Coe

Also I had financial worries because it took four years to write and we were living off my wife's income all that time, which wasn't very great.

A biographer has to get as emotionally close to his/her subject as possible: otherwise the writing won't come to life at all.

It's only a drawback in the States, where most people seem to have no real interest in other countries and the notion of a novel which might offer insight into life in the UK doesn't seem to appeal very widely.

Everybody is excited by his experience and enthusiasm. Everybody is impressed.

They were written in the early '90s when I was strapped for cash.

I'm trying to write a nonfiction book at the moment, slot it in between the novels, and it really is like wading through quicksand compared to writing fiction.

I have to constantly rein in my nostalgia for the 1970s, in case it takes me over and I become one of those grumpy old men who just talks about how much better life was when he was a kid.

I don't know if England lags behind the States or is ahead of the States. We've finished with the '70s retro chic revival, we've done the '80s retro-chic revival and on to the '90s.

I don't know, I don't really have a view about what my contemporaries are doing, except that I enjoy individual writers and so on.