Literature is being taught as though it were only political medicine or political poison-a view that is not only illiberal but illiterate.
Louis MenandIt's very hard to know who your readers are, but that's who I'm... if I have somebody in my head, that's probably who it is.
Louis MenandWriters are not mere copyists of language; they are polishers, embellishers, perfecters. They spend hours getting the timing right so that what they write sounds completely unrehearsed.
Louis MenandGetting faculties to come to a consensus about something that they've never really thought about or had to worry about in their careers before can be a rather slow process and a long process, it certainly was the case at Harvard, and it's the case with most of the general education curricula that I know of, it takes four or five years just to get everybody on board with one idea.
Louis Menand