He was constantly, pathologically, insanely busy. That’s…

“...in the midst of the tumult, part ecstasy and part panic, into which all first-time mothers are thrown by sleep deprivation and headlong identity…

— Anne Fadiman

“He simply could not imagine a time when being a Jew, or even a half Jew, was not a disability.”

— Anne Fadiman

“When he looked back at the menu as an old man, it brought back everything; the food, the wine, the private dining room, the…

— Anne Fadiman

“His books commingled democratically, united under the all-inclusive flag of Literature. Some were vertical, some horizontal, and some actually placed behind others. Mine were…

— Anne Fadiman

“her father had built from ax-hewn planks thatched with bamboo and grass. The floor was dirt, but it was clean. Her mother, Foua, sprinkled…

— Anne Fadiman

Some day, as soon as a book is printed it will be simultaneously put into digital form. That will be a wonderful research tool,…

— Anne Fadiman

The most important thing when starting out with essay writing is to find a voice with which you're comfortable. You need to find a…

— Anne Fadiman

“we expect a wine of quality to demand something from us.”

— Anne Fadiman

“Going through a dead parent's memorabilia is a hazardous undertaking; there is a fine line between pleasure and pain.”

— Anne Fadiman

...the reader who plucks a book from her shelf only once is as deprived as the listener who, after attending a single performance of…

— Anne Fadiman

“Benjamin Franklin wrote that he would like to be embalmed in a cask of Madeira”

— Anne Fadiman

“It has long been my belief that everyone's library contains an Odd Shelf. On this shelf rests a small, mysterious corpus of volumes whose…

— Anne Fadiman

If you truly love a book, you should sleep with it, write in it, read aloud from it, and fill its pages with muffin…

— Anne Fadiman

Something amazing happens when the rest of the world is sleeping. I am glued to my chair. I forget that I ever wanted to…

— Anne Fadiman

I can think of few better ways to introduce a child to books than to let her stack them, upend them, rearrange them, and…

— Anne Fadiman