What, really, is wanted from a neighborhood? Convenience, certainly, an absence of major aggravation, to be sure. But perhaps mostof all, ideally, what is wanted is a comfortable background, a breathing space of intermission between the intensities of private life… — Joseph Epstein Copy Share Image
I am basically a complainer and all the grounds for complaint have been swept out from under me. — Joseph Epstein Copy Share Image
I was recently asked what it takes to become a writer. Three things, I answered: first, one must cultivate incompetence at almost every other form of profitable work. This must be accompanied, second, by a haughty contempt for all the forms of work that one has established one cannot do. To these two must be joined, third, the nuttiness to… — Joseph Epstein Copy Share
“To be in the middle of composing a book is almost always to feel oneself in a state of confusion, doubt and mental imprisonment…” — Joseph Epstein Copy Share Image
We who are quotatious are never truly alone, but always hear the cheerful flow of remarks made by dead writers so much more intelligent… — Joseph Epstein Copy Share Image
Culture means, I think, that you have widened your experience enough through reading and through being a little bit thoughtful about these things that… — Joseph Epstein Copy Share Image
Food has it over sex for variety. Hedonistically, gustatory possibilities are much broader than copulatory ones. — Joseph Epstein Copy Share Image
“Getting rid of most of my personal library comported nicely with my longheld fantasy of traveling light, existing with minimal encumbrances, living simply. A… — Joseph Epstein Copy Share Image
Envy is never general, but always very particular - at least envy of the kind one feels strongly. — Joseph Epstein Copy Share Image
Many moons ago dictionaries of quotations may have been less needed than they are today. In those good/bad old days, people walked around with… — Joseph Epstein Copy Share Image
