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Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them all.
Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them all.
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.
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.
No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.
No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.
There's one good kind of writer -- a dead one.
There's one good kind of writer -- a dead one.
Criticism is an indirect form of self-boasting.
Criticism is an indirect form of self-boasting.
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.
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.
