Close friends, or those in my pay, sometimes call me a literary polymath, while others say that I'm just a shallow dilettante,… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
People sometimes think that I bring home all these old books because I'm addicted, that I'm no better than a hoarder with… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
The world is a library of strange and wonderful books, and sometimes we just need to go prowling through the stacks. — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
Because of Kipling, I've sometimes wondered about keeping a mongoose about the house. But given the cobra population in Silver Spring, Maryland… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
Fiction is a house with many stately mansions, but also one in which it is wise, at least sometimes, to swing from… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
I'm sometimes willing to put in vast, even inordinate amounts of time if I find a project that interests me. — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
I sometimes lie awake at night and try to imagine what would be the best period in history to spend one's seventy-odd… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
Sometimes the very best of all summer books is a blank notebook. Get one big enough, and you can practice sketching the… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
I don't think of myself as a critic at all. I'm a reviewer and essayist. I mainly hope to share with others… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
When I talk to friends and editors about possible projects, especially about projects that might come with a significant cash advance, they… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
In PLATO AT THE GOOGLEPLEX, Rebecca Newberger Goldstein set out to showcase, in sometimes startling ways, the continuing relevance of a classic… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
Nearly all the writing of our time is likely to disappear in a hundred years. Certainly most readers - and nearly all… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
Nearly all the writing of our time is likely to disappear in a hundred years. Certainly most readers - and nearly all critics -… — Michael Dirda Copy Share
I sometimes lie awake at night and try to imagine what would be the best period in history to spend one's seventy-odd years. — Michael Dirda Copy Share
To my mind, 'Dear Brutus' stands halfway between Shakespeare's 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's 'Into the Woods'. Like them,… — Michael Dirda Copy Share
The goal of a just society should be to provide satisfying work with a living wage to all its citizens. — Michael Dirda Copy Share
Most lyric poetry is about love, whether yearned after, fulfilled, or wistfully regretted; what isn't tends to consist of laments and cris du coeur… — Michael Dirda Copy Share
“Books, by their very nature and variety, help us grow in empathy for others, in tolerance and awareness. But they should increase our skepticism… — Michael Dirda Copy Share
My gift, if that's not too grandiose a term, is one for describing novels, biographies, and works of history in such a way that… — Michael Dirda Copy Share
Once we know the plot and its surprises, we can appreciate a book's artistry without the usual confusion and sap flow of emotion, content… — Michael Dirda Copy Share
My wife tells me I should check out 'Downton Abbey', but I gather that series might be almost too intense for my temperate nature. — Michael Dirda Copy Share
A reviewer's lot is not always an easy one. I can remember flogging myself to finish Harold Brodkey's 'The Runaway Soul' despite the novel's… — Michael Dirda Copy Share
I once read that in vaudeville, it was often the straight guy who got paid more than the comic because that's the tougher job.… — Michael Dirda Copy Share
From the late 19th to the early 20th century, the December issue of almost any general-interest magazine regularly featured a holiday horror or two. — Michael Dirda Copy Share
Neither my mom nor my dad ever bought me any comic books. Certainly not for Christmas. I suspect that doing so would have violated… — Michael Dirda Copy Share
For me, the two weeks between Christmas and Twelfth Night have come to be reserved for desultory reading. The pressure of the holiday is… — Michael Dirda Copy Share
I've always liked an easygoing, colloquial style. I like the kind of reviewer who is essentially a fellow reader, an enthusiast, a fan. — Michael Dirda Copy Share
![“Nearly all the writing of our time is likely to disappear in a hundred years. Certainly most readers - and nearly all critics - feel that [Kurt] Vonnegut started to repeat himself, to grow increasingly self-indulgent and meandering, and to sometimes just blather in his later work. But his books up…” quote by Michael Dirda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ed7/michael-dirda-3414_1960s_nearly-all-the-writing-of-our-time-is-li_13506.jpg)