Adventurous reading allows one to escape a little from the provincialities of one’s home culture and the blinders of one’s narrow self. Michael Dirda Read Quote
Every summer, I regret that I didn’t become a college teacher. Such a sweet life! With all that vacation time! You’ll never get me to believe that being a tenured professor at a good college is anything but Heaven on earth. Michael Dirda Read Quote
I do think digital media encourages speed-reading, which can be fine if one is simply seeking information. But a serious novel or work of history or volume of poetry is an experience one should savor, take time over. Michael Dirda Read Quote
In a single lifetime, roughly from 1865 to 1930, one finds the pioneering and patterning works of modern fantasy, science fiction, children’s literature and detective fiction, of modern adventure, mystery and romance. Michael Dirda Read Quote
People who’ve read my reviews know my tastes, know how I approach a book, know my background. I can write with believable authority. It doesn’t mean I’m always right. Michael Dirda Read Quote
I once read that in vaudeville, it was often the straight guy who got paid more than the comic because that’s the tougher job. He has to set up the jokes in just the right way. Michael Dirda Read Quote
Books can be a source of solace, but I see them mainly as a source of pleasure, personal as well as esthetic. Michael Dirda Read Quote
From the late 19th to the early 20th century, the December issue of almost any general-interest magazine regularly featured a holiday horror or two. Michael Dirda Read Quote
I don’t like gross monetary inequities. I firmly believe that the wrong people and the wrong professions are being rewarded, and rewarded absurdly, and that the hardest work the obscenely rich do is ensuring that they preserve their privileges, status symbols, and bloated bank accounts. Michael Dirda Read Quote