“Why do you think people stopped reading? We read to connect with other minds. But why read when you're busy writing, describing the fine-grained flotsam of your own life. Compulsively recording every morsel you eat, that you're cold, or, I… — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
“We both think love (and language) are interesting but taffylike diversions: soft, simple, perhaps a little salty. If either one takes over your life,… — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
“In the words of Georg Wilhelm Friedrich Hegel, “Human nature only really exists in an achieved community of minds.” — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
“Words, I’ve come to learn, are pulleys through time. Portals into other minds. Without words, what remains? Indecipherable customs. Strange rites. Blighted hearts. Without… — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
“Bartleby, just look at me. I wanted to do it once, too. Be a writer. Now I’m near 70, and the only thing I have to show for it is dictionary entries. Don’t get me wrong—I’m incredibly proud of it all. But let me say this, and I’ll say it only once: don’t fool yourself into thinking you’re just on… — Alena Graedon Copy Share
“the 19th century saw the rise of what we came to call linear thought, a way of processing the world that was made possible… — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
“Definition, like poetry, is the project of revivifying the familiar. Making things we think we know seem newly strange. To estrange, according to Hegel,… — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
“Why do you think people stopped reading? We read to connect with other minds. But why read when you're busy writing, describing the fine-grained… — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
“In truth, it was also by design: as much as I loved my mother, she wasn't often the person I sought for comfort in… — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
“But maybe because I'm from a part of the country where there are more meth labs than drive-throughs, anything harder than cough syrup always… — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
“I think this had to do with the vintage of his family's money: the older the gold, the less shiny it tends to be.” — Alena Graedon Copy Share Image
