Always keep a book handy for when you’re not up to thinking.
Dec 272022
Reading
The dead alive and busy.
—Vaughan
Dec 232022
When a critic says that the book he is reviewing is “better than X”, he is advising you, in the strongest possible terms, to read X.
Nov 112022
A primary source, in translation, is a secondary source.
Nov 102022
Children’s literature posits a compact between author and reader: though the reader may look like a frog to all the uncaring world, the author knows he is a handsome prince, and it can be their little secret. Harry Potter is children’s literature. So is Confederacy of Dunces.
Oct 272022
What is worth reading is worth reading esoterically.
Oct 192022
One must read widely to discover the few books to read deeply.
Sep 222022
When everyone writes, no one reads.
Aug 222022
The typical academic bibliography buries the three books the author has plagiarized among hundreds that he has scarcely opened.
Aug 052022
I always inspect what people read in public, but guiltily, the way boys look up skirts from under the bleachers.
Apr 082022
The desires to have one’s work understood, and oneself understood, are nearly opposite, and ought not to share a verb.