“Literature is being taught as though it were only political medicine or political poison-a view that is not only illiberal but illiterate.” PoliticalLiteratureViewsTaughtMedicinePoisonIlliterate Author:Louis Menand
“I think that the idea that there's such a thing as a national literature that's somehow uniquely expressive of a national soul or culture or mentality is probably also something that nobody really believes in anymore.” ThinkingBelieveIdeasSoulCultureLiteratureMentalityExpressive Author:Louis Menand
“One of the functions of literary criticism, or reviewing, generally - and I, most of my reviews actually are not about literature - but one of the functions of that is basically the sort of Consumer Reports function of letting readers know whether this is something they want to read.” KnowsWantLiteratureReaderCriticismFunctionConsumersReportsReviewsLiterary Criticism Author:Louis Menand
“I think our sensibility is not modernist anymore, that is, sensibility of people who are interested in art and literature.” PeopleThinkingArtLiteratureSensibility Author:Louis Menand
“Just in higher education alone, more people go to college now, by enormous amounts, than went to college in the '50's and '60's. So that represents a whole new literate public that's a consumer of literature, of news, of print, of, you know, opinion. And that's a bigger audience and much more diverse audience than it used to be.” PeopleKnowsWholeUsedLiteratureOpinionAudienceCollegeAmountHigherNewsBiggerEnormousUsed To BeConsumersPrintDiverseHigher Education Author:Louis Menand
“I suppose everybody does get attached to characters whether in movies or in stories, but I think that's part of the reason you get involved with literature is because there's somebody that grabs you about it and then you want to figure out why.” ThinkingWantDoeReasonCharacterStoriesLiteratureFiguresInvolvedGet Involved Author:Louis Menand
“I think in general there's no point in going into a field like English literature if you're not going to have fun with it.” IfsThinkingLiteratureFunFieldsHaving FunNo PointEnglish Literature Author:Louis Menand
