The novels were an escape from reality in the sense that we could marvel at their beauty and perfection. Curiously, the novels we escaped into led us finally to question and prod our own realities, about which we felt so helplessly speechless.

Poor reading, like poor writing, is imposing what you already know on texts. You should go into reading to discover, not to reaffirm what you know.

those who judge must take all aspects of an individual's personality into account.

Basically, fundamentalism is a modern phenomenon. In the same way that Hitler evoked a mythological religion of German purity and the glory of the past, the Islamists use religion to evoke emotions and passions in people who have been oppressed for a long time in order to reach their purpose.

Art is as useful as bread.

The negative side of the American Dream comes when people pursue success at any cost, which in turn destroys the vision and the dream.

The dearer a book was to my heart, the more battered and bruised it became.