Anatole Broyard

The more I like a book, the more slowly I read. this spontaneous talking back to a book is one of the things that makes reading so valuable. ”

Rome was a poem pressed into service as a city. ”

When friends stop being frank and useful to each other, the whole world loses some of its radiance. ”

It is one of the paradoxes of American literature that our writers are forever looking back with love and nostalgia at lives they couldn't wait to leave. ”

The tension between 'yes' and 'no', between 'I can' and 'I cannot', makes us feel that, in so many instances, human life is an interminable debate with one's self. ”

To be misunderstood can be the writer's punishment for having disturbed the reader's peace. The greater the disturbance, the greater the possibility of misunderstanding. ”

The epic implications of being human end in more than this: We start our lives as if they were momentous stories, with a beginning, a middle and an appropriate end, only to find that they are mostly middles. ”

There was a time when we expected nothing of our children but obedience, as opposed to the present, when we expect everything of them but obedience. ”

People have no idea what a hard job it is for two writers to be friends. Sooner or later you have to talk about each other's work. ”