Sometimes One Succeeds, Sometimes One Fails.

We Read Deeply For Varied Reasons, Most Of Them Familiar: That We Cannot Know Enough People Profoundly Enough; That We Need To Know Ourselves Better; That We Require Knowledge, Not Just Of Self And Others, But Of The Way Things Are. Yet The Strongest, Most Authentic Motive For Deep Reading…is The Search For A Difficult Pleasure.

I Don't Believe In Myths Of Decline Or Myths Of Progress, Even As Regards The Literary Scene.

To Read In The Service Of Any Ideology Is Not, In My Judgment, To Read At All.

We Read, Frequently If Not Unknowingly, In Search Of A Mind More Original Than Our Own.

A Superb And Dreadfully Moving Account Of The Glory And Subsequent Murder By The Romanians Of The Jewish City In Odessa. . . . Odessa Is Both Celebration And Lament And Equally Impressive As Both.