People who rarely read long books, or even short stories, still appreciate the greatest examples of the shortest literary genres. I have long been fascinated by these short genres. They seem to lie just where my heart is, somewhere between… — Gary Saul Morson Copy Share Image
Not everything that can be extracted appears in anthologies of quotations, in commonplace books, or on the back of Celestial Seasonings boxes. Only certain sorts of extracts become quotations. — Gary Saul Morson Copy Share Image
“Like a delicatessen owner who sells rancid meat and then blames his business failure on the vulgarization of customer taste, humanities professors account for… — Gary Saul Morson Copy Share Image
A single gnomic line can come to resonate with centuries of subsequent wisdom. — Gary Saul Morson Copy Share Image
People who rarely read long books, or even short stories, still appreciate the greatest examples of the shortest literary genres. I have long been… — Gary Saul Morson Copy Share Image
Reframing an extract as a quotation constitutes a kind of coauthorship. With no change in wording, the cited passage becomes different. I imagine that… — Gary Saul Morson Copy Share Image
The attribution of a speaker is in fact a part of the quotation. Some statements simply are better if a certain famous person said… — Gary Saul Morson Copy Share Image
Unless created as freestanding works, quotations resemble "found" art. They are analogous, say, to a piece of driftwood identified as formally interesting enough to… — Gary Saul Morson Copy Share Image
We sometimes think of quotations as extracts from larger texts, but some quotations originated complete unto themselves. — Gary Saul Morson Copy Share Image
Not everything that can be extracted appears in anthologies of quotations, in commonplace books, or on the back of Celestial Seasonings boxes. Only certain… — Gary Saul Morson Copy Share Image
Anatole France frankly advised, "When a thing has been said and said well, have no scruple. Take it and copy it." Yes, indeed, but… — Gary Saul Morson Copy Share Image
I wonder if "an" ever occurs before "haughty" except in a quotation, or whether you can make anything sound like a quotation by adding… — Gary Saul Morson Copy Share Image
Some lines are born quotations, some are made quotations, and some have "quotation" thrust upon them. — Gary Saul Morson Copy Share Image
