I think our sensibility is not modernist anymore, that is, sensibility of people who are interested in art and literature. — Louis Menand Copy Share Image
Harvard has something that manages, I think, to provide a lot of options for students, but still fairly prescriptive about the kinds… — Louis Menand Copy Share Image
I don't think people believe that any more, I don't think people think that it really matters whether you appreciate Henry James… — Louis Menand Copy Share Image
For the kind of places I've written for and the kind of writing that I've done, the general way to think about… — Louis Menand Copy Share Image
I think in general there's no point in going into a field like English literature if you're not going to have fun… — Louis Menand Copy Share Image
I think that the idea that there's such a thing as a national literature that's somehow uniquely expressive of a national soul… — Louis Menand Copy Share Image
I don't think that you want to see universities in any way trying to have any kind of quota system about political… — Louis Menand Copy Share Image
The difficulty with coming up with a curriculum is mainly that faculty aren't trained to think in terms of general education. They're… — Louis Menand Copy Share Image
I suppose everybody does get attached to characters whether in movies or in stories, but I think that's part of the reason… — Louis Menand Copy Share Image
I think at a place like Harvard, our experience, I was involved with, at various stages, in trying to implement a new… — Louis Menand Copy Share Image
“We do not (on Holmes’s reasoning) permit the free expression of ideas because some individual may have the right one. No individual… — Louis Menand Copy Share Image
It's difficult to get a job and people stay in school longer because they're employed as teaching assistants or instructors by their… — Louis Menand Copy Share Image
I don't really usually push an agenda, and I don't feel that my main job is to persuade people of something. My… — Louis Menand Copy Share Image
“For Peirce, inquiry is always communal—it is the median of many observations that gives the position of the star—and the last analysis really is… — Louis Menand Copy Share
If time is a staircase, reality is a Slinky. Decades can be parsed. Television, frequently accused of destabilizing life, is actually what stitches the… — Louis Menand Copy Share
Basically what you want in any profession - I would say the same thing if I were a lawyer or a doctor - is… — Louis Menand Copy Share
“In modern societies, the reproduction of custom is no longer understood to be one of the chief purposes of existence, and the ends of… — Louis Menand Copy Share
One of the functions of literary criticism, or reviewing, generally - and I, most of my reviews actually are not about literature - but… — Louis Menand Copy Share
You have to have students wanting to take the courses, otherwise you're not going, they're not going to be very effective. — Louis Menand Copy Share
“We do not (on Holmes’s reasoning) permit the free expression of ideas because some individual may have the right one. No individual alone can… — Louis Menand Copy Share
Literature is being taught as though it were only political medicine or political poison-a view that is not only illiberal but illiterate. — Louis Menand Copy Share
“[According to Holmes], ‘Every year if not every day we have to wager our salvation upon some prophecy based upon imperfect knowledge. While that… — Louis Menand Copy Share
It's difficult to get a job and people stay in school longer because they're employed as teaching assistants or instructors by their schools, by… — Louis Menand Copy Share
Just in higher education alone, more people go to college now, by enormous amounts, than went to college in the '50's and '60's. So… — Louis Menand Copy Share
Obviously input is helpful to faculty in trying to come up with a curriculum, but ultimately it's the faculty's job to know what students… — Louis Menand Copy Share
Universities are set up to get people to work together by having them disagree with each other. — Louis Menand Copy Share
“What [Peirce] meant was that since nature evolves by chance variation, then the laws of nature must evolve by chance variation as well. Variations… — Louis Menand Copy Share
Never be afraid to try something new. Remember, amateurs built the ark; professionals built the Titanic. Never, btw, ask that androgynous paper clip anything.… — Louis Menand Copy Share
