List of Anne Fadiman Quotes

I Am Very Grateful To The Electronic World For Making My Life Easier, But There Is Something About Holding A Book - The Smell And The World Of Association. Even When E-books Are Perfected, As They Surely Will Be, It Will Be Like Being In Bed With A Very Well-made Robot Rather Than A Warm, Soft, Human Being Whom You Love.

When The Irish Novelist John Mcgahern Was A Child, His Sisters Unlaced And Removed One Of His Shoes While He Was Reading. He Did Not Stir. They Placed A Straw Hat On His Head. No Response. Only When They Took Away The Wooden Chair On Which He Was Sitting Did He, As He Puts It, 'wake Out Of The Book'.

To Use An Electronics Analogy, Closing A Book On A Bookmark Is Like Pressing The Stop Button, Whereas When You Leave The Book Facedown, You've Only Pressed Pause.

Americans Admire Success. Englishmen Admire Heroic Failure

...the Reader Who Plucks A Book From Her Shelf Only Once Is As Deprived As The Listener Who, After Attending A Single Performance Of A Beethoven Symphony, Never Hears It Again.

I'd Rather Have A Book, But In A Pinch I'll Settle For A Set Of Water Pik Instructions.

Some Day, As Soon As A Book Is Printed It Will Be Simultaneously Put Into Digital Form. That Will Be A Wonderful Research Tool, But It Will Never Substitute For Holding The Book. I Feel Certain That At Least Within My Lifetime, Everyone Will Still Be Going To The Bookstore And Buying Printed Books. Thank God I'll Die Before I Have To Worry About Whether The Printed Book Itself Will Disappear. That's Something I Don't Want To Live To See.

My Brother And I Were Able To Fantasize Far More Extravagantly About Our Parents' Tastes And Desires, Their Aspirations And Their Vices, By Scanning Their Bookcases Than By Snooping In Their Closest. Their Selves Were On Their Shelves.

Pen-bereavement Is A Serious Matter.

I Can Imagine Few Worse Fates Than Walking Around For The Rest Of One's Life Wearing A Typo.

A Philosophy Professor At My College, Whose Baby Became Enamored Of The Portrait Of David Hume On A Penguin Paperback, Had The Cover Laminated In Plastic So Her Daughter Could Cut Her Teeth On The Great Thinker.

Muses Are Fickle, And Many A Writer, Peering Into The Voice, Has Escaped Paralysis By Ascribing The Creative Responsibility To A Talisman: A Lucky Charm, A Brand Of Paper, But Most Often A Writing Instrument. Am I Writing Well? Thank My Pen. Am I Writing Badly? Don't Blame Me Blame My Pen. By Such Displacements Does The Fearful Imagination Defend Itself.