Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.

Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.

I remember when I was in college, people told me I couldn't play in the NBA. There's always somebody saying read more

I remember when I was in college, people told me I couldn't play in the NBA. There's always somebody saying you can't do it, and those people have to be ignored.

Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have.

Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have.

If writers were good businessmen, they'd have too much sense to be writers.

If writers were good businessmen, they'd have too much sense to be writers.

The words of the world want to make sentences.

The words of the world want to make sentences.

A quotation, like a pun, should come unsought, and then be welcomed only for some propriety of felicity justifying the read more

A quotation, like a pun, should come unsought, and then be welcomed only for some propriety of felicity justifying the intrusion.

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre.

Good teaching is one-fourth preparation and three-fourths pure theatre.

Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on read more

Writing is easy. All you do is stare at a blank sheet of paper until drops of blood form on your forehead.

To write is to make oneself the echo of what cannot cease speaking -- and since it cannot, in order read more

To write is to make oneself the echo of what cannot cease speaking -- and since it cannot, in order to become its echo I have, in a way, to silence it. I bring to this incessant speech the decisiveness, the authority of my own silence.