Search quotes

Link	Quote	Tags	Author
2d44c92	My introduction, implicitly echoing Oscar Wilde's remark that all bad poetry is sincere, grants the benign social decency of [Stephen] King's fictions.		Harold Bloom
d8f5368	Like television, motion pictures, and computers, [Stephen] King has replaced reading...the triumph of the genial King is a large emblem of the failures of American education.		Harold Bloom
fa1b661	Reviewing bad books is bad for the character - WH Auden	influence reading culture	Harold Bloom
4a74e13	I cannot locate any aestetic dignity in [Stephen] King's writing: his public could not sustain it, nor could he...Art unfortunately is rarely the fruit of earnestness, and King will be remembered as a sociological phenomenon, an image of the death of the Literate Reader.		Harold Bloom
b595b0d	When critics surrender to the prevailing orthodoxy, the author says they adopt the rhetoric of an occupied country, "one that expects no liberation from liberation."	romance bias conventional-wisdom conformity perspective science-fiction paranormal	Harold Bloom
6b48cc3	The aesthetic is an individual rather than a societal concern.	independence perspective	Harold Bloom
bb86e9b	If we read the Western Canon in order to form our social, political, or personal moral values, I firmly believe we will become monsters of selfishness and exploitation.		Harold Bloom
6bf7796	Frye's influence on me lasted twenty years but came to an abrupt halt on my thirty-seventh birthday, July 11, 1967, when I awakened from a nightmare and then passed the entire day in composing a dithyramb, "The Covering Cherub; or, Poetic Influence."		Harold Bloom
12c0678	For Ibsen, gusto forgives almost everything.	enthusiasm	Harold Bloom
8684d54	No one dies halfway through the last act. - Heinrich Ibsen	sovereignty-of-god grace-of-god pessimism	Harold Bloom
fcf8b64	The old-fashioned sins of reading is the only sense that matters.	openness intuition storytelling	Harold Bloom
379f94f	The freedom to apprehend aesthetic value may rise from class conflict, but the value is not identical with the freedom, even if it cannot be achieved without that apprehension. Aesthetic value is by definition engendered by an interaction between artists, an influencing that is always an interpretation.		Harold Bloom
c987e9b	monsters of selfishness and exploitation. To read in the service of any ideology is not, in my judgment, to read at all. The reception of aesthetic power enables us to learn how to talk to ourselves and how to endure ourselves.		Harold Bloom
5d6233f	BLOOM: I take it that a successful therapy is an oxymoron.		Harold Bloom
7f57db6	Poetry, at the best, does us a kind of violence that prose fiction rarely attempts or accomplishes.		Harold Bloom
d1b5b72	thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt be any more.		Harold Bloom
e42bc4f	Memory is always in art, even when it works involuntarily.	emotion distortion culture perception	Harold Bloom
c80e9e4	Spiritual power and spiritual authority notoriously shade over into both politics and poetry.	church-and-state idolatry manipulation	Harold Bloom
00c8124	One reads for oneself and for strangers.	influence relationships education goodreads	Harold Bloom
bb6a162	The unity of a great era is generally an illusion.	division	Harold Bloom
47b2eaa	Romance depends upon imperfect knowledge.	worship mystery-omniscience intimacy-with-god	Harold Bloom
7d20ca7	Calling a work of sufficient literary power either religious or secular is a political decision, not an aesthetic one.		Harold Bloom
227eefb	I treasure ruefully some memories of W.H. Auden that go back to the middle 1960s, when he arrived in New Haven to give a reading of his poems at Ezra Stiles College. We had met several times before, in New York City and at Yale, but were only acquaintances. The earlier Auden retains my interest, but much of the frequently devotional poetry does not find me. Since our mutual friend John Hollander was abroad, Auden phoned to ask if he might s..		Harold Bloom
a648ca1	King die hard, in Shakespeare and in life.	leadership idolatry	Harold Bloom
2a0f455	To condemn Wordsworth for not writing verse of political and social protest, or for having forsaken the revolution, is to cross the final divide between academic arrogance and moral smugness.		Harold Bloom
bbd53e1	Characters carrying the playwright's disapproval is a un-Shakespearian burden.	compassion condemnation openness bitterness conviction graciousness curiosity	Harold Bloom
ae0bcfd	American Religionists, when I questioned them, frequently said that falling in love was affirming again Christ's love for each of them.		Harold Bloom
64f8c6c	Canonical writing is born of an originality fused with tradition. - From the book jacket	innovation	Harold Bloom
2cbc0dc	You get too much at last of everything: of sunsets, of cabbages, of love.		Harold Bloom
8308a65	You cannot locate Shakespeare in his own works, not even in the sonnets. It is in this near invisibility that encourages the zealots who believe that almost anyone wrote Shakespeare, except Shakespeare himself.		Harold Bloom
190c0cc	Hope and joy, however irrational, are stronger than dispair, and ultimately more pernicious.		Harold Bloom
bec3b6c	Jesus is present only as a supreme representation of suffering and change, one that Shakespeare (in his dangerous era) shrewdly and invariably avoided.		Harold Bloom
a897321	The tragic sense of life in Don Quixote is also the faith of Moby Dick. Ahab is a monomaniac; so is the kindlier Quixote, but both are tormented idealists who seek justice in human terms, not as theocentric men but as ungodly, godlike men.		Harold Bloom
4c458cb	The outward limit of human achievement.		Harold Bloom
7a16f79	My dear, that won't do.		Harold Bloom

2d44c92

My introduction, implicitly echoing Oscar Wilde's remark that all bad poetry is sincere, grants the benign social decency of [Stephen] King's fictions.

Harold Bloom

d8f5368

Like television, motion pictures, and computers, [Stephen] King has replaced reading...the triumph of the genial King is a large emblem of the failures of American education.

Harold Bloom

fa1b661

Reviewing bad books is bad for the character - WH Auden

influence reading culture

Harold Bloom

4a74e13

I cannot locate any aestetic dignity in [Stephen] King's writing: his public could not sustain it, nor could he...Art unfortunately is rarely the fruit of earnestness, and King will be remembered as a sociological phenomenon, an image of the death of the Literate Reader.

Harold Bloom

b595b0d

When critics surrender to the prevailing orthodoxy, the author says they adopt the rhetoric of an occupied country, "one that expects no liberation from liberation."

romance bias conventional-wisdom conformity perspective science-fiction paranormal

Harold Bloom

6b48cc3

The aesthetic is an individual rather than a societal concern.

independence perspective

Harold Bloom

bb86e9b

If we read the Western Canon in order to form our social, political, or personal moral values, I firmly believe we will become monsters of selfishness and exploitation.

Harold Bloom

6bf7796

Frye's influence on me lasted twenty years but came to an abrupt halt on my thirty-seventh birthday, July 11, 1967, when I awakened from a nightmare and then passed the entire day in composing a dithyramb, "The Covering Cherub; or, Poetic Influence."

Harold Bloom

12c0678

For Ibsen, gusto forgives almost everything.

enthusiasm

Harold Bloom

8684d54

No one dies halfway through the last act. - Heinrich Ibsen

sovereignty-of-god grace-of-god pessimism

Harold Bloom

fcf8b64

The old-fashioned sins of reading is the only sense that matters.

openness intuition storytelling

Harold Bloom

379f94f

The freedom to apprehend aesthetic value may rise from class conflict, but the value is not identical with the freedom, even if it cannot be achieved without that apprehension. Aesthetic value is by definition engendered by an interaction between artists, an influencing that is always an interpretation.

Harold Bloom

c987e9b

monsters of selfishness and exploitation. To read in the service of any ideology is not, in my judgment, to read at all. The reception of aesthetic power enables us to learn how to talk to ourselves and how to endure ourselves.

Harold Bloom

5d6233f

BLOOM: I take it that a successful therapy is an oxymoron.

Harold Bloom

7f57db6

Poetry, at the best, does us a kind of violence that prose fiction rarely attempts or accomplishes.

Harold Bloom

d1b5b72

thou shalt be a terror, and never shalt be any more.

Harold Bloom

e42bc4f

Memory is always in art, even when it works involuntarily.

emotion distortion culture perception

Harold Bloom

c80e9e4

Spiritual power and spiritual authority notoriously shade over into both politics and poetry.

church-and-state idolatry manipulation

Harold Bloom

00c8124

One reads for oneself and for strangers.

influence relationships education goodreads

Harold Bloom

bb6a162

The unity of a great era is generally an illusion.

division

Harold Bloom

47b2eaa

Romance depends upon imperfect knowledge.

worship mystery-omniscience intimacy-with-god

Harold Bloom

7d20ca7

Calling a work of sufficient literary power either religious or secular is a political decision, not an aesthetic one.

Harold Bloom

227eefb

I treasure ruefully some memories of W.H. Auden that go back to the middle 1960s, when he arrived in New Haven to give a reading of his poems at Ezra Stiles College. We had met several times before, in New York City and at Yale, but were only acquaintances. The earlier Auden retains my interest, but much of the frequently devotional poetry does not find me. Since our mutual friend John Hollander was abroad, Auden phoned to ask if he might s..

Harold Bloom

a648ca1

King die hard, in Shakespeare and in life.

leadership idolatry

Harold Bloom

2a0f455

To condemn Wordsworth for not writing verse of political and social protest, or for having forsaken the revolution, is to cross the final divide between academic arrogance and moral smugness.

Harold Bloom

bbd53e1

Characters carrying the playwright's disapproval is a un-Shakespearian burden.

compassion condemnation openness bitterness conviction graciousness curiosity

Harold Bloom

ae0bcfd

American Religionists, when I questioned them, frequently said that falling in love was affirming again Christ's love for each of them.

Harold Bloom

64f8c6c

Canonical writing is born of an originality fused with tradition. - From the book jacket

innovation

Harold Bloom

2cbc0dc

You get too much at last of everything: of sunsets, of cabbages, of love.

Harold Bloom

8308a65

You cannot locate Shakespeare in his own works, not even in the sonnets. It is in this near invisibility that encourages the zealots who believe that almost anyone wrote Shakespeare, except Shakespeare himself.

Harold Bloom

190c0cc

Hope and joy, however irrational, are stronger than dispair, and ultimately more pernicious.

Harold Bloom

bec3b6c

Jesus is present only as a supreme representation of suffering and change, one that Shakespeare (in his dangerous era) shrewdly and invariably avoided.

Harold Bloom

a897321

The tragic sense of life in Don Quixote is also the faith of Moby Dick. Ahab is a monomaniac; so is the kindlier Quixote, but both are tormented idealists who seek justice in human terms, not as theocentric men but as ungodly, godlike men.

Harold Bloom

4c458cb

The outward limit of human achievement.

Harold Bloom

7a16f79

My dear, that won't do.

Harold Bloom