“. . if you are given lined paper, write crosswise. At least occassionally.” — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
Order and surprise: these are two intertwined elements that make for any great library or collection. — 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
Books can be a source of solace, but I see them mainly as a source of pleasure, personal as well as esthetic. — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
Once upon a time, I sat in my mother's lap as she turned the pages of Golden Books, and I gradually learned… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
Adventurous reading allows one to escape a little from the provincialities of one's home culture and the blinders of one's narrow self. — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
I've always liked an easygoing, colloquial style. I like the kind of reviewer who is essentially a fellow reader, an enthusiast, a… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
I'm an appreciator. I love all kinds of books, and I want others to love them, too. — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
I haven't read for pleasure in 35 years. I mean, I get a lot of pleasure from what I read... For me,… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
Literary generations come and go, and each generation passeth away and is heard of no more. In the end, simply the making… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
I long ago ran out of bookshelf space and so, like a museum with its art, simply rotate my books from the… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
I love the look of books published by the firm of Rupert Hart-Davis: They strike me as handsome, elegant, and inviting. I'll… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
Most scholarly books we read for the information or insight they contain. But some we return to simply for the pleasure of… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
I've been slightly obsessed with paper and notebooks. Among my most precious possessions is a small light-blue, breviary-sized volume - four-and-a-half inches… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
My gift, if that's not too grandiose a term, is one for describing novels, biographies, and works of history in such a… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
Digital texts are all well and good, but books on shelves are a presence in your life. As such, they become a… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
I have now and again tried to imagine the perfect environment, the ideal conditions for reading: A worn leather armchair on a… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
[Kurt] Vonnegut was a writer whose great gift was that he always seemed to be talking directly to you. He wasn't writing,… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
“Books, by their very nature and variety, help us grow in empathy for others, in tolerance and awareness. But they should increase… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
“I still care about physical books, gravitate to handsome editions and pretty dust jackets, and enjoy seeing rows of hardcovers on my… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
“Despite the rising popularity of the downloadable e-text, I still care about physical books, gravitate to handsome editions and pretty dust jackets,… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
In truth, my Anglophilia is fundamentally bookish: I yearn for one of those country house libraries, lined on three walls with mahogany… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
None of us, of course, will ever read all the books we'd like, but we can still make a stab at it. — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
Writers keep writing and publishers publishing - it never grows boring. — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
My urge at Christmas time or Hanukkah-time or Kwanzaa-time is that people go to bookstores: that they walk around bookstores and look… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
The only kind of notebook I actively dislike is the steno pad, entirely because of that vertical line down the middle of… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
No matter how beautiful the paper, artwork, printing, and binding, I'm seldom drawn to a book unless it's by a writer I… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
I think that his [Kurt Vonnegut's] appeal, though, will always be chiefly to adolescents. His sense of the world matches that of… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
On any given day, I'm likely to be working at home, hunched over this keyboard, typing Great Thoughts and Beautiful Sentences -… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
A personal library is a reflection of who you are and who you want to be, of what you value and what… — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
A reviewer's lot is not always an easy one. I can remember flogging myself to finish Harold Brodkey's 'The Runaway Soul' despite… — 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 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 years. — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
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 Image
The goal of a just society should be to provide satisfying work with a living wage to all its citizens. — Michael Dirda Copy Share Image
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 Image
“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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
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 Image
![“[Kurt] Vonnegut was a writer whose great gift was that he always seemed to be talking directly to you. He wasn't writing, he wasn't showing off, he was just telling you, nobody else, what it was like, what it was all about. That intimacy made him beloved. We can admire the art of John Updike or…” quote by Michael Dirda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/beb/michael-dirda-3414_admire_kurt-vonnegut-was-a-writer-whose-great-g_2525625.jpg)
![“I think that his [Kurt Vonnegut's] appeal, though, will always be chiefly to adolescents. His sense of the world matches that of young people, who feel deeply life's absurdity.” quote by Michael Dirda](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/img-quotes/2ad/michael-dirda-3414_absurdity_i-think-that-his-kurt-vonnegut-s-appeal_652900.jpg)
![“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/img-quotes/ed7/michael-dirda-3414_1960s_nearly-all-the-writing-of-our-time-is-li_13506.jpg)
