Michael Dirda QUOTES

1 " Despite the rising popularity of the downloadable e-text, I still care about physical books, gravitate to handsome editions and pretty dust jackets, and enjoy seeing rows of hardcovers on my shelves. Many people simply read fiction for pleasure and nonfiction for information. I often do myself. But I also think of some books as my friends and I like to have them around. They brighten my life. "

― Michael Dirda , Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting and Living with Books

2 " As with a love affair, the battered heart needs time to recover from a good work of fiction. "

― Michael Dirda , Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life

3 " Many readers simply can't stomach fantasy. They immediately picture elves with broadswords or mighty-thewed barbarians with battle axes, seeking the bejeweled Coronet of Obeisance ... (But) the best fantasies pull aside the velvet curtain of mere appearance. ... In most instances, fantasy ultimately returns us to our own now re-enchanted world, reminding us that it is neither prosaic nor meaningless, and that how we live and what we do truly matters. "

― Michael Dirda

4 " 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

5 " A good rule of thumb is: Pack twice as many books as changes of underwear. "

― Michael Dirda , Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments

6 " The memory of a tone, the rhythm of an author's sentences, the sorrow we felt on a novel's last page--perhaps that is all that we can expect to keep from books. "

― Michael Dirda , Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments

7 " As book collectors know all too well: We only regret our economies, never our extravagances. "

― Michael Dirda

8 " Books, by their very nature and variety, help us grow in empathy for others, in tolerance and awareness. But they should increase our skepticism as well as our humanity, for all good readers know how easy it is to misread. What counts is to stay receptive and open, to reserve judgment and try to foresee consequences, to avoid the facile conclusion and be ready to change one's mind. "

― Michael Dirda

9 " Order and surprise: these are two intertwined elements that make for any great library or collection. "

― Michael Dirda

10 " The patient accretion of knowledge, the focusing of all one's energies on some problem in history or science, the dogged pursuit of excellence of whatever kind -- these are right and proper ideals for life. "

― Michael Dirda

11 " I have now and again tried to imagine the perfect environment, the ideal conditions for reading: A worn leather armchair on a rainy night? A hammock in a freshly mown backyard? A verandah overlooking the summer sea? Good choices, every one. But I have no doubt that they are all merely displacements, sentimental attempts to replicate the warmth and snugness of my mother's lap. "

― Michael Dirda , An Open Book: Coming of Age in the Heartland

12 " Throughout history the exemplary teacher has never been just an instructor in a subject; he is nearly always its living advertisement. "

― Michael Dirda

13 " I also think of some books as my friends and i like to have them around. They brighten my life. "

― Michael Dirda , Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting and Living with Books

14 " . . if you are given lined paper, write crosswise. At least occassionally. "

― Michael Dirda

15 " Some of us, alas, are destined to find our escapes in novels, not life. "

― Michael Dirda , Readings: Essays and Literary Entertainments

16 " we learn best by placing our 'confidence in men and women whose examples invite us to love what they love'(Robert Wilken). "

― Michael Dirda

17 " . . the humanities encourage the development of our own humanity. They are our instruments of self-exploration. "

― Michael Dirda

18 " As a teenager, I virtually memorized my paperback editions, greedy for insider tips about the literary life. Pound, Eliot, Hemingway, Faulkner, Colette, Waugh—they were all there. What has stuck with me the most over the years is their almost universal insistence on the importance of revision, of revising and revising again. "

― Michael Dirda , Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting and Living with Books

19 " On any given day I’m likely to be working here 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.
--Going, Going, Gone "

― Michael Dirda , Browsings: A Year of Reading, Collecting and Living with Books

20 " Many people feel most alive, most fulfilled, when they violate the dictates of conscience or even the promptings of their own self interest. "

― Michael Dirda , Book by Book: Notes on Reading and Life

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