Nick Hornby
Nick Hornby
Nicholas Peter John "Nick" Hornbyis an English novelist, essayist, lyricist, and screenwriter. He is best known for his novels High Fidelity and About a Boy. Hornby's work frequently touches upon music, sport, and the aimless and obsessive natures of his protagonists. His books have sold more than 5 million copies worldwide as of 2009...
NationalityEnglish
ProfessionNovelist
Date of Birth17 April 1957
growing-up believe adults
I used to believe, although I don't now, that growing and growing up are analogous, that both are inevitable and uncontrollable processes. Now it seems to me that growing up is governed by the will, that one can choose to become an adult, but only at given moments. These moments come along fairly infrequently -during crises in relationships, for example, or when one has been given the chance to start afresh somewhere- and one can ignore them or seize them.
believe character people
You need as much ballast as possible to stop you from floating away; you need people around you, things going on, otherwise life is like some film where the money ran out, and there are no sets, or locations, or supporting actors, and it's just one bloke on his own staring into the camera with nothing to do and nobody to speak to, and who'd believe in this character then?
believe heaven want
I don't believe in Heaven or anything. But I want to be the kind of person that qualifies for entry anyway.
believe
You wouldn't believe that so much could change just because a relationship ended.
These things that I write about, not only have I experienced them but they are unavoidable. If you're any kind of human, you are going to have relationships.
game hardly stadium watch
And we hardly need ever go to the stadium to watch every game live, because they're all on TV.
authors content english small
English authors are very content to write for a very small audience, and I think that shows.
almost beginning british certainly england job people players stood watch
Even at the beginning of the 90s people in England stood on the terraces to watch British players who would almost certainly need a job of some kind when they retired.
bad books
Books are long. Even mine. You don't want to feel bad about them as you're writing them.
explore fragment interested kinds resonance seems start themes
I start with a fragment of narrative, or a character, something that seems to have resonance for me and which allows me to explore the kinds of themes I'm interested in.
authors liked lucky people
I've been very lucky with all my adaptations - they were made by intelligent people who liked the books, and I know that not all authors feel this way.
football
I've never particularly wanted to read a football novel.
books sick time top
On top of that, I'm pretty sick of working on the books by the time they're published.
domestic novel
So the domestic novel can accommodate, should accommodate, a lot of extremity.