The intellectual is, quite simply, a human being who has a pencil in his or her hand when reading a book.
George SteinerIt is not the literal past that rules us, save, possibly, in a biological sense. It is images of the past. Each new historical era mirrors itself in the picture and active mythology of its past or of a past borrowed from other cultures. It tests its sense of identity, of regress or new achievement against that past.
George SteinerWhen a language dies, a way of understanding the world dies with it, a way of looking at the world.
George SteinerBooks are in no hurry. An act of creation is in no hurry; it reads us, it privileges us infinitely.
George SteinerThe new sound-sphere is global. It ripples at great speed across languages, ideologies, frontiers and races. The economics of this musical Esperanto is staggering. Rock and pop breed concentric worlds of fashion, setting and life-style. Popular music has brought with it sociologies of private and public manner, of group solidarity. The politics of Eden come loud.
George Steiner