Quotes by Critics

Digital texts are all well and good, but books on shelves are a presence in your life. As such, they become a part of your day-to-day existence, reminding you, chastising you, calling to you. Plus, book collecting is, hands down, the greatest pastime in the world. Michael Dirda
Life Good You Book World Digital Become Down Books Collecting Plus Part Day-To-Day Reminding Well Calling Greatest Shelves Existence Texts Pastime Hands Your Presence
I don't like gross monetary inequities. I firmly believe that the wrong people and the wrong professions are being rewarded, and rewarded absurdly, and that the hardest work the obscenely rich do is ensuring that they preserve their privileges, status symbols, and bloated bank accounts. Michael Dirda
Work People Rich Believe Ensuring Status Wrong Firmly Absurdly Like Bloated Privileges Accounts Bank Rewarded Being Gross Professions Monetary Hardest Symbols Preserve
With the possible exception of steampunk aficionados, many reasonable people must view my fascination with Victorian and Edwardian popular fiction - mysteries, fantasy, and adventure - as eccentric or merely antiquarian. Michael Dirda
People Mysteries Possible Must Eccentric Exception Merely Adventure Edwardian Fiction Victorian Fantasy View Reasonable Many Popular Fascination
People sometimes think that I bring home all these old books because I'm addicted, that I'm no better than a hoarder with a houseful of crumbling newspapers. Michael Dirda
Home People Better Sometimes Old Think Addicted Books Crumbling Because Than Old Books Newspapers Bring
On any given day, I'm likely to be working at home, hunched over this keyboard, typing Great Thoughts and Beautiful Sentences - or so they seem at the time, like those beautifully flecked and iridescent stones one finds at the seashore that gradually dry into dull gray pebbles. Michael Dirda
Beautiful Time Day Home Great Thoughts Keyboard Typing Those Finds Seem Given Over Like Likely Beautifully Dry Dull Gradually Stones Any Sentences Working Seashore Gray Pebbles
It is a truth universally acknowledged that M. Dirda is a sucker for anything bookish in the way of artwork. Michael Dirda
Truth Way Artwork Anything Acknowledged Sucker Universally
Mentoring is the last refuge of the older artist. With luck, disciples will keep one's books in print, one's reputation alive. Michael Dirda
Will Reputation Luck Older Books Alive Mentoring Disciples Print Artist Refuge In Print Keep Last
Once upon a time, I sat in my mother's lap as she turned the pages of Golden Books, and I gradually learned to read. Michael Dirda
Time Mother Books Once She Read Learned Gradually Golden Turned Pages Lap Sat
When I come to visit my mom - every two or three months - I generally spend five or six hours with her each day. She's always immensely glad to see me, her eldest child, her only son. Michael Dirda
Day Mom Me Son Three Every Spend Months Immensely Visit See Only Glad Generally Come Hours She Always Five Child Six Eldest Each Each Day Her Two
At the age of 14, I ran away from home for four days and hitchhiked around western Pennsylvania and southern Ohio. Michael Dirda
Home Age Ran Pennsylvania Days Around Western Southern Ohio Away Four
I'm sometimes willing to put in vast, even inordinate amounts of time if I find a project that interests me. Michael Dirda
Time Me Sometimes Project Inordinate Willing Find Vast Put Interests Even Amount
With concerted effort, I can follow written instructions, but don't ask me to simply grasp how to operate a smartphone. Michael Dirda
Me Follow Written Simply Instructions Operate Concerted Effort How Effort Ask Grasp
My wife tells me I should check out 'Downton Abbey', but I gather that series might be almost too intense for my temperate nature. Michael Dirda
Nature Me Wife Too Out Abbey Tells Temperate Almost Check Intense Might Should Series Downton Abbey Gather
Fiction is a house with many stately mansions, but also one in which it is wise, at least sometimes, to swing from the chandeliers. Michael Dirda
Wise Sometimes Stately House Also Least Fiction Which Mansions Many Swing
The only kind of notebook I actively dislike is the steno pad, entirely because of that vertical line down the middle of the page. I presume it has some arcane secretarial use, but to me, it's both ugly and confusing. Michael Dirda
Me Ugly Down Secretarial Presume Kind Arcane Some Entirely Only Both Because Line Vertical Middle Notebook Dislike Pad Confusing Page Use Actively
I have never seen John Kerry give anything but an engineered response. Michael Parenti
Seen Response John John Kerry Give Never Anything Engineered Kerry
My mother's family was among the 120,000 people of Japanese descent on the West Coast who were dispatched to internment camps during World War II. Michiko Kakutani
War Family People World Mother Were West West Coast Camps Japanese Coast Who Descent Among Internment World War World War II
President Trump not only lies with astonishing temerity and abandon, but those lies connect into equally false narratives that gin up the worst fears and prejudices of his base. Michiko Kakutani
Fears President President Trump Astonishing Those Worst Abandon Lies Gin Only Equally Narratives His False Trump Up Prejudices Connect Base
I've always been a news junkie, and an avid reader of newspapers and magazines, and this interest only ramped up during the campaign of 2016 and in the aftermath of the election. Michiko Kakutani
News Election Magazines Only Reader Always Been Campaign Up Aftermath Interest Newspapers Avid
The removal of people of Japanese descent from their homes and their incarceration in camps were executed with the same sort of political calculus of fear and bigotry that Mr. Trump is using to redefine American immigration policy. Michiko Kakutani
People Immigration Fear Political Immigration Policy Removal Calculus Executed Redefine Policy Sort Were Trump Camps American Same Japanese Incarceration Descent Using Homes
For most of us, art is supposed to do something more than simply mirror the confusions of the world. Michiko Kakutani
Art World Mirror Something More Simply Supposed Most Than Us Confusions
Indeed, 'The Second Plane' is such a weak, risible, and often objectionable volume that the reader finishes it convinced that Mr. Amis should stick to writing fiction and literary criticism, as he's thoroughly discredited himself with these essays as any sort of political or social commentator. Michiko Kakutani
Writing Political Criticism Indeed Thoroughly Weak Objectionable Finishes Volume He Himself Reader Sort Stick Commentator Essays Any Often Fiction Literary Literary Criticism Social Plane Convinced Should Second
Like many people, I became increasingly alarmed during the 2016 campaign and the first year of the Trump administration by the full-on war being waged on the very idea of truth. Michiko Kakutani
Truth War People First Year Increasingly Administration Idea Like Became Waged Trump Campaign Very Being Full-On Many
One of the things I wanted to do in 'The Death of Truth' was explore some of the larger social and political dynamics that fueled the rise of Trump and brought America to the point where a third of the country will casually shrug off hard facts about everything from the size of inaugural crowds to the crime rate among immigrants. Michiko Kakutani
Death Truth Political Crime Will Country Crime Rate Everything Immigrants One Of The Things Some Brought About Rise Rate Crowds Point Casually Facts Trump Off America Where Size Wanted Dynamics Social Fueled Explore Hard Larger Among Things Third
Trump tapped into a lot of middle-class and working-class disillusion with the political establishment and into economic worries and resentments that ballooned in the wake of the 2008 financial crash. Michiko Kakutani
Financial Political Worries Economic Trump Lot Wake Establishment Crash Disillusion Working-Class
I find it hard to write in the first person. Michiko Kakutani
First Find Write First-Person Person Hard
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