“[All the ancient wisdom] tells us that work is necessary to us, as much a part of our condition as mortality; that good work is our salvation and our joy; that shoddy or dishonest or self-serving work is our curse and our doom. We have tried to escape the sweat and sorrow promised in Genesis - only to find that, in order to do so, we must forswear love and excellence, health and joy.
(pg. 44, "The Unsettling of America")”
― The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays
(pg. 44, "The Unsettling of America")”
― The Art of the Commonplace: The Agrarian Essays
“Each book was a world unto itself, and in it I took refuge.”
― A History of Reading
― A History of Reading
“I’ve tried that. I’ve tried aspirin, too. Rusty thinks I should smoke marijuana, and I did for a while, but it only makes me giggle. What I’ve found does the most good is just to get into a taxi and go to Tiffany’s. It calms me down right away, the quietness and the proud look of it; nothing very bad could happen to you there, not with those kind men in their nice suits, and that lovely smell of silver and alligator wallets. If I could find a real-life place that made me feel like Tiffany’s, then I’d buy some furniture and give the cat a name.”
― Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Three Stories
― Breakfast at Tiffany’s and Three Stories
“Do the children who prefer books set in the real, ordinary, workaday world ever read as obsessively as those who would much rather be transported into other worlds entirely?”
― The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia
― The Magician's Book: A Skeptic's Adventures in Narnia
“There is nothing more to be said or to be done tonight, so hand me over my violin and let us try to forget for half an hour the miserable weather and the still more miserable ways of our fellowmen.”
― The Five Orange Pips
― The Five Orange Pips
Garland’s 2023 Year in Books
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