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" Luckily, in my case, I have managed, by writing, to do the one thing that I always wanted to do. "
Jonathan Coe
Case
Always
Writing
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" But I have always - ever since The Accidental Woman - written novels about individuals attempting to make choices in the context of situations over which they have no control. "
Jonathan Coe
Choices
Control
Over
" My only regret is that I signed away the world rights and in America they've been far and away my most successful books, but I never saw a cent from any of it. "
Jonathan Coe
America
World
Successful
" It seems to me that you would have to write a novel on a very small, intimate scale for it not to become political. "
Jonathan Coe
Become
You
Write
" I live a perfectly happy and comfortable life in Blair's Britain, but I can't work up much affection for the culture we've created for ourselves: it's too cynical, too knowing, too ironic, too empty of real value and meaning. "
Jonathan Coe
Happy
Culture
Value
" But you can try to read books at the wrong time or for the wrong reasons. "
Jonathan Coe
You
Wrong
Wrong Time
" I'm one of those unlucky people who had a happy childhood. "
Jonathan Coe
Childhood
Unlucky
Who
" Ah, well, I have no talent for nonfiction, that's my problem. "
Jonathan Coe
Well
Ah
Problem
" You would go mad if you began to speculate about the impact your novel might have while you were still writing it. "
Jonathan Coe
You
Mad
Impact
" I think it's also the case that I'm not as widely travelled, or as well-educated in history, as most of the other novelists I meet: so I have to write about my own country, at the present time, because it's more or less all I know about! "
Jonathan Coe
Own
History
Time
" They were written in the early '90s when I was strapped for cash. "
Jonathan Coe
Cash
Strapped
Were
" Writers never feel comfortable having labels attached to them, however accurate they are. "
Jonathan Coe
Comfortable
Having
Never
" I have two ideas for novels at the moment, neither of them all that conventional, but I'm not ready to choose between them yet, let alone settle down to the process of writing. "
Jonathan Coe
Process
Moment
Writing
" But we are entitled to look for continuity in politics. "
Jonathan Coe
Look
Entitled
Continuity
" As soon as you start writing about how human beings interact with each other socially, you're into politics, aren't you? "
Jonathan Coe
Human
Politics
You
" Contemporary Britain seems an endlessly fascinating place to me - but if I knew a little bit more about other places, and other times, maybe it wouldn't. "
Jonathan Coe
Place
Places
Little
" 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. "
Jonathan Coe
People
Insight
Life
" As I said, I had no publisher for What a Carve Up! while I was writing it, so all we had to live off was my wife's money and little bits I was picking up for journalism. "
Jonathan Coe
Live
Journalism
Money
" As the books grew bigger and more ambitious, the situations in question sometimes became political ones, and so it became necessary to start painting in the social background on a scale which eventually became panoramic. "
Jonathan Coe
Painting
Start
Sometimes
" The biggest markets for my books outside the UK are France and Italy, and those are the two countries where I also have the closest personal relationships with my translators - I don't know whether that's a coincidence, or if there's something to be learned from it. "
Jonathan Coe
Two
Relationships
Personal
" I became quite taken over by Johnson's personality at some points while writing the biography, and since I went straight on to The Closed Circle afterwards, I did sometimes feel I could hear him whispering in my ear while I was working on it. "
Jonathan Coe
Him
Personality
Feel
" But at the same time, I have trouble keeping things out of books, which is why I don't write short stories because they turn into novels. "
Jonathan Coe
Same
Why
Turn
" Thatcherism has become bigger than she ever was. "
Jonathan Coe
Ever
Bigger
Become
" The more melancholy side of my literary personality is much in tune with BS Johnson's. "
Jonathan Coe
Side
Tune
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