Tag Archives: Joshua Cohen

In mid-20th-century America, it could be argued that the novelist still had the most claim of anyone to omniscience. Whatever he/she couldn't prove, he/she could gesture at. Joshua Cohen

I've never been able to shake the idea of family, which is to say I've never been able to shake my family. Being membered – being one limb of an immense grosser body – that's always been a fact to me. Joshua Cohen

I don't like being victimized by a machine or by other people's demands on my time. I become resentful by feeling forced or incentivized to live a life I don't want to live. That rage in general prevents me from entirely becoming enslaved by technology. Joshua Cohen

Books were in my family – books were my family. Joshua Cohen

I've always been discreet – more than discreet. When a friend calls, and I'm doing something innocuous like cooking dinner, I tell them I'm reading or running out to the movies. It's the surveillance I can't stand. Joshua Cohen

A poem is bound by language, but a poetics is not. Joshua Cohen

What qualified me to write about Israel was that I wanted to; it took no time to convince myself. The only reservation I had was about eaven: I wanted to write about the Jewish heaven but did not feel qualified because I did not and do not believe in 'it,' though I should. Joshua Cohen

Novelists can ask – they can ask for anything – but their books are their answers in advance. Joshua Cohen

English, unlike Hebrew, is read from left to right – as are clocks. The concepts of clockwise and counterclockwise are universal, irrespective of alphabet. Joshua Cohen

Writing is a conviction before it is a craft. Joshua Cohen