When I write after dark", observed Cyril Connolly, "the shades of evening scatter their purple through my prose Anne Fadiman More Quotes by Anne Fadiman More Quotes From Anne Fadiman If my father were still writing essays, every full-grown 'girl' would probably be transformed into a'woman'. Anne Fadiman girl writing father when I walk into an apartment with books on the shelves, books on the bedside tables, books on the floor, and books on the toilet tank, then I know what I would see if I opened the door that says Private - grownups keep out: a children sprawled on the bed, reading. Anne Fadiman reading book children When the Irish novelist John McGahern was a child, his sisters unlaced and removed one of his shoes while he was reading. He did not stir. They placed a straw hat on his head. No response. Only when they took away the wooden chair on which he was sitting did he, as he puts it, 'wake out of the book'. Anne Fadiman reading book children To use an electronics analogy, closing a book on a bookmark is like pressing the Stop button, whereas when you leave the book facedown, you've only pressed Pause. Anne Fadiman buttons use book One of the convenient things about literature is that, despite copyrights [...] a book belongs to the reader as well as to the writer. Anne Fadiman copyright literature book Muses are fickle, and many a writer, peering into the voice, has escaped paralysis by ascribing the creative responsibility to a talisman: a lucky charm, a brand of paper, but most often a writing instrument. Am I writing well? Thank my pen. Am I writing badly? Don't blame me blame my pen. By such displacements does the fearful imagination defend itself. Anne Fadiman voice responsibility writing A philosophy professor at my college, whose baby became enamored of the portrait of David Hume on a Penguin paperback, had the cover laminated in plastic so her daughter could cut her teeth on the great thinker. Anne Fadiman daughter baby philosophy I can imagine few worse fates than walking around for the rest of one's life wearing a typo. Anne Fadiman typos fate imagine Pen-bereavement is a serious matter. Anne Fadiman bereavement serious matter My brother and I were able to fantasize far more extravagantly about our parents' tastes and desires, their aspirations and their vices, by scanning their bookcases than by snooping in their closest. Their selves were on their shelves. Anne Fadiman parent brother self Some day, as soon as a book is printed it will be simultaneously put into digital form. That will be a wonderful research tool, but it will never substitute for holding the book. I feel certain that at least within my lifetime, everyone will still be going to the bookstore and buying printed books. Thank God I'll die before I have to worry about whether the printed book itself will disappear. That's something I don't want to live to see. Anne Fadiman thank-god worry book I'd rather have a book, but in a pinch I'll settle for a set of Water Pik instructions. Anne Fadiman settling water book Some friends of theirs had rented their house for several months to an interior decorator. When they returned, they discovered that their entire library had been reorganized by color and size. Shortly thereafter, the decorator met with a fatal automobile accident. I confess that when this story was told, everyone around the dinner table concurred that justice had been served. Anne Fadiman color house justice Americans admire success. Englishmen admire heroic failure Anne Fadiman englishmen heroic admire I am very grateful to the electronic world for making my life easier, but there is something about holding a book - the smell and the world of association. Even when e-books are perfected, as they surely will be, it will be like being in bed with a very well-made robot rather than a warm, soft, human being whom you love. Anne Fadiman smell grateful book ...the reader who plucks a book from her shelf only once is as deprived as the listener who, after attending a single performance of a Beethoven symphony, never hears it again. Anne Fadiman shelves symphony book E-mail is a modern Penny Post: the world is a single city with a single postal rate. Anne Fadiman cities letters world It is a truism of epistolary psychology that, for example, a Christmas thank-you note written on December 26 can say any old thing, but if you wait until February, you are convinced that nothing less than Middlemarch will do. Anne Fadiman old-things psychology waiting The most important thing when starting out with essay writing is to find a voice with which you're comfortable. You need to find a persona that is very much like you, but slightly caricatured. Anne Fadiman you voice important writing The problem with the literary hothouse of New York City is that people spend so much time looking in the mirror. They go to parties with people who are just like them, and they write novels about people who are just like them. It's limiting. Anne Fadiman mirror city time people