39+ Russell Hoban Quotes On Education, Culture And Order

Russell Hoban was an American novelist, illustrator, and children's author. He was best known for his novels Riddley Walker and The Mouse and His Child, as well as his children's books, such as The Sea-Thing Child and The Mouse and His Child. He wrote over 40 books, including novels, children's books, and poetry, and his work was translated into more than a dozen languages. Following is our collection on famous quotes by Russell Hoban on leadership, education, life.

Top 10 Russell Hoban Quotes

1. After all, when you come right down to it, how many people speak the same language even when they speak the same language?
2. But when I don't smoke I scarcely feel as if I'm living. I don't feel as if I'm living unless I'm killing myself.
3. When you suffer an attack of nerves you're being attacked by the nervous system. What chance has a man got against a system?
4. Explorers have to be ready to die lost.
5. An idea is an eye given by God for the seeing of God. Some of these eyes we cannot bear to look out of; we blind them as quickly as possible.
6. The things that matter don't necessarily make sense.
7. And now it seems she's on my wavelength. That's all I need. My mind isn't much of a comfort to me but at least I thought it was private.
8. It's almost as if we're put here on earth to show how silly they aren't.
9. I'd always assumed I was the central character in my own story, but now it occured to me I might in fact be only a minor character in someone else's.
10. My generation was somewhat between things, neither free nor much supported by whatever held us in.

Russell Hoban Short Quotes

• If reality had a stage door I'd hang around there to see what comes out after the show.
• I believe that most of us would like to be thought well of by horses.
• More and more I'm aware that the permutations are not unlimited.
• Is there an existence that is only mine?
• Them as counts counts moren them as dont count
• A family is everybody all together.

Russell Hoban Quotes About Life

There are situations in life to which the only satisfactory response is a physically violent one. If you don't make that response, you continually relive the unresolved situation over and over in your life. — Russell Hoban

Life is a process of one goneness after another. — Russell Hoban

Words have a life; without response they die. — Russell Hoban

Russell Hoban Famous Quotes And Sayings

The Zoo is a prison for animals who have been sentenced without trial and I feel guilty because I do nothing about it. But there it was, I wanted to see an oyster-catcher and I was no better than the people who'd caged oyster-catchers for me to see. — Russell Hoban

Sometimes I think that the biggest difference between men and women is that more men need to seek out some terrible lurking thing in existence and hurl themselves upon it. Women know where it lives but they can let it alone. — Russell Hoban

Who is Alice?" asked mother. "Alice is somebody that nobody can see," said Frances. "And that is why she does not have a birthday. So I am singing Happy Thursday to her." - Frances the badger — Russell Hoban

The first thing I would say to young writers is, "Don't do it, unless you can't stand not to do it." And the second thing I would say is, "If you do do it, and get into it, the constant rule you should have in mind is to explore your material." It sounds simple, but it isn't, because people often want to get from A to B, and they don't stop to look at what is in the material. — Russell Hoban

I have no wisdom and nothing useful to tell you - I only mentioned this because it came into my head. — Russell Hoban

Language is an archeological vehicle... the language we speak is a whole palimpsest of human effort and history. — Russell Hoban

When I write a book, I don't have a plan or an outline. The characters move the action, and the action develops the characters. When I write a book, I become an actor, really, taking the role of the person who is speaking or acting at the time, and so their reactions to whatever they see are my reactions. — Russell Hoban

Sometimes there's nothing but Sundays for weeks on end. Why can't they move Sunday to the middle of the week so you could put it in the OUT tray on your desk? — Russell Hoban

The sign said 'The Green Turtle, Chelonia myadas, is the source of turtle soup....' I am the source of William G. soup if it comes to that. Everyone is the source of his or her kind of soup. In a town as big as London, that's a lot of soup walking around. — Russell Hoban

What a weird thing smoking is and I can't stop it. I feel cosy, have a sense of well-being when I'm smoking, poisoning myself, killing myself slowly. Not so slowly maybe. I have all kinds of pains I don't want to know about and I know that's what they're from. But when I don't smoke I scarcely feel as if I'm living. I don't feel as if I'm living unless I'm killing myself. — Russell Hoban

Time's arrow, we are told, is a one-way thing. . . Memory's arrow, like the needle of a compass too close to a lodestone, spins in all directions. — Russell Hoban

Usually my starting point is something that I've seen. It might be a painting, it might be an object. But they always start from a definite sensory experience. — Russell Hoban

There is a tiger in my room,' said Frances. 'Did he bite you?' said Father. 'No,' said Frances. 'Did he scratch you?' said Mother. 'No,' said Frances. 'Then he is a friendly tiger,' said Father. 'He will not hurt you. Go back to sleep. — Russell Hoban

Nothing to be done really about animals. Anything you do looks foolish. The answer isn't in us. It's almost as if we're put here on earth to show how silly they aren't. — Russell Hoban

Fidelity is a matter of perception; nobody is unfaithful to the sea or to mountains or to death: once recognized they fill the heart. — Russell Hoban

I'll never retire. They'll have to take my computer out of my cold, dead hands. I'm addicted to writing. I feel physically unwell if I'm not doing it. — Russell Hoban

If the past cannot teach the present and the father cannot teach the son, then history need not have bothered to go on, and the world has wasted a great deal of time. — Russell Hoban

A map is the dead body of where you've been. A map is the unborn baby of where you're going. There are no maps. Maps are pictures of what isn't. — Russell Hoban

There must be a lot of people in the world being wondered about by people who don't see them anymore. — Russell Hoban

Me, what's that after all? An arbitrary limitation of being bounded by the people before and after and on either side. Where they leave off I begin, and vice versa. — Russell Hoban

Life Lessons by Russell Hoban

1. Russell Hoban teaches us to be resilient in the face of adversity, to have faith in ourselves, and to never give up on our dreams.
2. He also encourages us to be open to new experiences and to embrace change, even when it is uncomfortable.
3. Finally, Hoban reminds us to be kind to ourselves and to others, and to always strive for growth and self-improvement.