The paradox of the English country house is that its state of permanent decline, the fact that its heyday is always behind it, is part of the seduction, just as it is part of the seduction of books in general.
LEV GROSSMANYou’re saying the gods don’t have free will.” “The power to make mistakes,” Penny said. “Only we have that. Mortals
More Lev Grossman Quotes
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I studied the cello for a long time, from when I was little up through college.
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The main advantage of being a reviewer is that you read a lot. A lot of books get sent to you, and you have an amazing vantage point from which to observe what’s going on in contemporary fiction – not only genre stuff, the whole spectrum.
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His whole personality was like an elaborate joke that he never stopped telling.
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He who completes a quest does not merely find something. He becomes something.
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Some of the comments on YouTube make you weep for the future of humanity just for the spelling alone, never mind the obscenity and the naked hatred.
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My book group has one rule: no books for adults. We read young adult fiction only.
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It turns out that there is something that can compete with free: easy.
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I came from an anxious, overly intense East Coast academic family. That was the way of our tribe.
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I recognize that on paper, you can’t really tell that I’m a fan or a nerd.
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Don’t take anyone’s writing advice too seriously.
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I loved fantasy, but I particularly loved the stories in which somebody got out of where they were and into somewhere better – as in the Chronicles Of Narnia, The Wizard Of Oz, The Phantom Tollbooth, the Dungeons & Dragons cartoon.
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His crush went from exciting to depressing, as if he’d gone from the first blush of infatuation to the terminal nostalgia of a former lover without even the temporary relief of an actual relationship in between.
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I feel that’s one of the central questions of fantasy. What did we lose when we entered the 20th and 21st century, and how can we mourn what we lost, and what can we replace it with? We’re still asking those questions in an urgent way.
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Young minds – young brains – need stories and ideas like the ones in those [censored and banned] books in order to grow. They need ideas that you disagree with. They need ideas that I disagree with. Or they’ll never be able to figure out what ideas they believe in.
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People – me included – want to get excited about books. Good books are a good thing.
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We have reached the point where ignorance and neglect are the best we can hope for in a ruler.
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The real problem with being around James was that he was always the hero. And what did that make you? Either the sidekick or the villain.
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He wasn’t surprised. He was used to this anticlimactic feeling, where by the time you’ve done all the work to get something you don’t even want it anymore.
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In a way fighting was just like using magic. You said the words, and they altered the universe. By merely speaking you could create damage and pain, cause tears to fall, drive people away, make yourself feel better, make your life worse.
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Do you promise to hate my parents as much as I do?” “Oh, absolutely,” Quentin said. “Maybe even more.
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I feel very conscious of my influences. T.H. White is very important for me.
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A novel with a bad middle is a bad book. A bad ending is something I’ve just gotten in the habit of forgiving.
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You’re saying the gods don’t have free will.” “The power to make mistakes,” Penny said. “Only we have that. Mortals
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The problem with growing up is that once you’re grown up, the people who aren’t grown up aren’t fun anymore.
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By now he had learned enough to know that when he was getting annoyed at somebody else, it was usually because there was something that he himself should be doing, and he wasn’t doing it.
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Escapism has value, even if I don’t know what its value is, exactly. Maybe it’s just part of some healthy way that we deal with the world.
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