At the beginning of ‘A Christmas Carol,’ Scrooge embodies one of the central tenets of depression: that one has always been this way – and always will be. Elif Batuman Read Quote
There is this way that I felt when I was younger that we were beyond history and we were all citizens of the world that now seems so naive. Elif Batuman Read Quote
There are very few things that I have any patience for that are not at least a little bit humorous. Elif Batuman Read Quote
Even when I was very small, my mother treated me like a great novelist. She was like: ‘Oh, I’m sitting at the breakfast table with Flaubert,’ and would say, if she burned some food or was late arriving, ‘Don’t put this in your novel!’ Elif Batuman Read Quote
Why is there an end of the year? Because the calendar imposes numerical order on time. There is a natural fitness in the celebration of the New Year, a holiday of numbers imposed on things, with lists, as well as with Advent calendars and songs like ‘The Twelve Days of Christmas.’ Elif Batuman Read Quote
