Only in the most unusual cases is it useful to determine whether a book is good or bad; for it is just as rare for it to be one or the other. It is usually both.

... the novel is called upon like no other art form to incorporate the intellectual content of an age.

A politician who climbs high over the bodies of the slain is described as vile or great according to the degree of his success.

... there is no such thing as a rational world and a separate irrational world, but only one world containing both.

Anyone who still wants to experience fairytales these days can’t afford to dither when it comes to using their brains.

The difference between a healthy person and one who is mentally ill is the fact that the healthy one has all the mentall illnesses, and the mentally ill person has only one.

We have gained reality and lost dream. No more lounging under a tree and peering at the sky between one's big and second toes; there's work to be done. To be efficient, one cannot be hungry and dreamy but must eat steak and keep moving.