Essential characteristic of the really great novelist: a Christ-like, all-embracing compassion.

Essential characteristic of the really great novelist: a Christ-like, all-embracing compassion.

The principle of procrastinated rape is said to be the ruling one in all the great bestsellers.

The principle of procrastinated rape is said to be the ruling one in all the great bestsellers.

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture; it's a really stupid thing to want to do.

Writing about music is like dancing about architecture; it's a really stupid thing to want to do.

There are times when I think that the ideal library is composed solely of reference books. They are like understanding read more

There are times when I think that the ideal library is composed solely of reference books. They are like understanding friends-always ready to change the subject when you have had enough of this or that.

Wear the old coat and buy the new book.

Wear the old coat and buy the new book.

One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well.

One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well.

Today the discredit of words is very great. Most of the time the media transmit lies. In the face of read more

Today the discredit of words is very great. Most of the time the media transmit lies. In the face of an intolerable world, words appear to change very little. State power has become congenitally deaf, which is why --but the editorialists forget it --terrorists are reduced to bombs and hijacking.

Quotation... A writer expresses himself in words that have been used before because they give his meaning better than he read more

Quotation... A writer expresses himself in words that have been used before because they give his meaning better than he can give it himself, or because they are beautiful or witty, or because he expects them to touch a cord of association in his reader, or because he wishes to show that he is learned and well read. Quotations due to the last motive are invariably ill-advised; the discerning reader detects it and is contemptuous; the undiscerning is perhaps impressed, but even then is at the same time repelled, pretentious quotations being the surest road to tedium.

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.