I started thinking about the endings of novels not because I think endings are so important, but because I think they’re actually not as important as they’re sometimes given credit for. Lev Grossman Read Quote
People – me included – want to get excited about books. Good books are a good thing. Lev Grossman Read Quote
I’ve only read three books by Stephen King. When I was 10 I read ‘The Long Walk,’ one of his pseudonymous Bachman books. In my early 20s, while trapped on a family vacation, I read ‘The Dark Half,’ which taught me a word I have never forgotten: psychopomp. Now I have read ’11/22/63.’ Lev Grossman Read Quote
I used to write in a local coffee shop, but there was another guy, another writer, who kept sitting in my favorite seat. I would show up, and he would be there, and I would get exiled to a couch or something, and it would throw me off my game. Lev Grossman Read Quote
The novel is a highly corrupt medium, after all – in the end the vast majority of them simply aren’t that great, and are destined to be forgotten. Lev Grossman Read Quote
It seems to me that the novel as a medium has a very low signal-to-noise ratio. By which I mean: there are a lot of novels published, but the vast majority of them don’t represent major contributions to the medium. Lev Grossman Read Quote
I’ve read plenty of J.G. Ballard, but I’m not really a Ballardian. I’ve met Ballardians, and I know when I can’t compete. I like Ballard in his relatively unchallenging apocalyptic mode: ‘Vermilion Sands,’ ‘The Drowned World,’ ‘The Burning World,’ ‘The Crystal World.’ Lev Grossman Read Quote
And I’m not as young as I once was. At my age, I don’t have time to be bored. Lev Grossman Read Quote
