Modern American literature was born in protest, born in rebellion, born out of the sense of loss and indirection which was imposed upon the new generations out of the realization that the old formal culture-the "New England idea"-could no longer… — Alfred Kazin Copy Share Image
Art changes all the time, but it never "improves." It may go down, or up, but it never improves as technology and medicine improve. — Alfred Kazin Copy Share Image
When a writer talks about his work, he's talking about a love affair. — Alfred Kazin Copy Share Image
History has become more important than ever because of the to unprecedented ability of the historical sciences to take in man's life on earth… — Alfred Kazin Copy Share Image
Is it strange, then, that in a literature so concerned with realism and with personal liberation this refusal and impoverishment of the life of the spirit have always nourished the screamers, the eccentrics, the pseudo-Whitmans, the calculating terrorists? — Alfred Kazin Copy Share
A classic is a book that survives the circumstances that made it possible yet alone keeps those circumstances alive. — Alfred Kazin Copy Share Image
What need had the businessman to scribble or philosophize when he dominated the imagination of his time and the frantic materialism that was his… — Alfred Kazin Copy Share Image
One writes to make a home for oneself, on paper, in time, in others' minds. — Alfred Kazin Copy Share Image
The writer writes in order to teach himself, to understand himself, to satisfy himself; the publishing of his ideas, though it brings gratification, is… — Alfred Kazin Copy Share Image
Altogether beautiful in the power of its feeling. As beautiful as anything in Thoreau or Hemingway. — Alfred Kazin Copy Share Image
One writes to make a home for oneself, on paper, in time and in others' minds. — Alfred Kazin Copy Share Image
We never know how much has been missing from our lives until a true writer comes along. — Alfred Kazin Copy Share Image
