“According to Proust, one proof that we are reading a major new writer is that his writing immediately strikes us as ugly. Only minor writers write beautifully, since they simply reflect back to us our preconceived notion of what beauty… — Adam Kirsch Copy Share Image
“According to Proust, one proof that we are reading a major new writer is that his writing immediately strikes us as ugly. Only minor… — Adam Kirsch Copy Share Image
The unadmitted reason why traditional readers are hostile to e-books is that we still hold the superstitious idea that a book is like a… — Adam Kirsch Copy Share Image
Once a poet calls his myth a myth, he prevents the reader from treating it as a reality; we use the word 'myth' only… — Adam Kirsch Copy Share Image
Teaching and writing have tended to proceed on parallel lines, but there have been times when there was indeed carry-over from the classroom to… — Adam Kirsch Copy Share Image
In the 1970s, for example, I found myself learning to relish the poetry of Andrew Marvell and Sir Thomas Wyatt, and getting a handle… — Adam Kirsch Copy Share Image
So how can a poet-an intelligent, serious poet-write mystical verse now? The poetry of Adam Zagajewski provides the beginning of an answer to this… — Adam Kirsch Copy Share Image
“To those who fought World War II, it was plain enough that Allied bombs were killing huge numbers of German civilians, that Churchill was… — Adam Kirsch Copy Share Image
With luck, a writer capable of producing both Slouching Towards Kalamazoo and The Blood of the Lamb will not remain unappreciated for long. — Adam Kirsch Copy Share Image
“Drakulić titled her book “They Would Never Hurt a Fly,” after Arendt’s description of a typical Nazi functionary who “does not regard himself as… — Adam Kirsch Copy Share Image
“The lesson Arendt drew was that a beautiful soul is not enough, for "it was precisely the soul for which life showed no consideration."… — Adam Kirsch Copy Share Image
“Theory sometimes seems to me a way of taking revenge on literature—the critic masters the text and rewrites it in his own image, instead… — Adam Kirsch Copy Share Image
![“In the 1970s, for example, I found myself learning to relish the poetry of Andrew Marvell and Sir Thomas Wyatt, and getting a handle on poetry of plainer speech than I had dwelt with heretofore. Which led me into a new appreciation of middle [William Butler ] Yeats, of the short three-beat line…” quote by Adam Kirsch](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/3dc/adam-kirsch-38562_andrew_in-the-1970s-for-example-i-found-myself_1542775.jpg)
