To be weighed down by things - books, furniture - seems somehow terrible to me. — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
I digress a lot - it's how I experience the world. I would like to write in a way that will convey… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
When I finish a book, I always fear that I'll never write again. It takes a lot of time. You always think… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
In midlife, I feel that my tendency to acquire books is rather like someone smoking two packs a day: it's a terrible… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
Especially since having children, a lot of the time if you ask me, 'Have you read that book?' the answer would be… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
I measure my life out in books." "You should be measuring your life by living. Correction: you shouldn't be measuring your life.… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“To a degree, literary taste is a subjective matter. One can admire a work of fiction without particularly enjoying it; one can… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
I wanted to write a voice that for me, as a reader, had been missing from the chorus: the voice of an… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
I love my books, and with all their dog-ears and under-linings they are irreplaceable, but I sometimes wish they'd just vanish. — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
The apartment was entirely, was only, for her: a wall of books, both read and unread, all of them dear to her… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“He didn't much like reading novels - he preferred history or philosophy - or poetry, although he could read only a little… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
I was in my senior year of high school when I read 'Notes From Underground' by Dostoyevsky, and it was an exhilarating… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
The effort to create a work of art that is true and potentially lasting, that is the very best work of art… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
When I am teaching, I first give out Tolstoy's 'Childhood,' his first published book. It is so transparent. It gives you exactly… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
I feel that I have an impractical and deleterious snobbery about the relation of literature to the market. I thought, 'I've become… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
Anyway, these books I love, they’re all books by men—every last one of them. Because if it’s unseemly and possibly dangerous for… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“The apartment was entirely, was only, for her; a wall of books, both read and unread, all of them dear to her… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“The novel is describing a time in which she felt hope, beauty, elation, joy ,wonder, anticipation-these are things these friends gave to… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“The apartment was entirely, was only, for her: a wall of books, both read and unread, all of them dear to her… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
As a reader, I have always enjoyed 'ranty' books, but they are all written by men. — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
The people who don't read - who are they? How do they make sense of things? — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
I have said it somewhere - our literary lived lives are as important as our literally lived lives. — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“Life is about deciding what matters. It’s about the fantasy that determines the reality. Have you ever asked yourself whether you’d rather fly or… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
Life's funny. You have to find a way to keep going, to keep laughing, even after you realize that none of your dreams will… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
It's the strangest thing about being human: to know so much, to communicate so much, and yet always to fall so drastically short of… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
The fictional narratives that television, film, and the news provide for girls and young women are appalling. — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“I don't want to sleep,' my mother said. 'I want -- for God's sake, I want to wake up.” — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“It was supposed to say “Great Artist” on my tombstone, but if I died right now it would say “such a good teacher/daughter/friend” instead;… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“Live, my dear Nora. Satisfy your hunger. There's food all around you, you know.' 'What kind of food, I'd like to know?' 'Ah'-he smiled-… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
I digress a lot - it's how I experience the world. I would like to write in a way that will convey that to… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
We think that - as kids, you know - that kids make up stories and live in a sort of fictional place, but that,… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
“It makes sense that if you stand almost daily in the middle of a perfect crescent of shore, with a vista open to eternity,… — Claire Messud Copy Share Image
