“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 at a place like Harvard, our experience, I was involved with, at various stages, in trying to implement a new general education curriculum, our experience was that Harvard's all about specialization, that's not just true of the professori, it's also true of a lot of the undergraduates, too, and they come, they kind of know what they want to do, they select it because they have a strong aptitude for something in particular.” ThinkingKnowsWantTryingKindStrongStageParticularInvolvedVariousSelectHarvardCurriculumAptitudeSpecializationGeneral Education Author:Louis Menand
“You want diversity in any intellectual organization. I mean, that's how good ideas arise.” WantMeanIdeasDiversityIntellectualOrganizationAriseGood Ideas Author:Louis Menand
“Basically what you want in any profession - I would say the same thing if I were a lawyer or a doctor - is you want bright undergraduates to look at your profession as something they would be interested in getting into.” IfsWantLooksWould BeDoctorsProfessionWhat You WantLawyer Author:Louis Menand
“I don't think that you want to see universities in any way trying to have any kind of quota system about political views, or views in general. You want the market to work in the way the market works.” ThinkingWayWantTryingKindPoliticalViewsUniversityQuotaPolitical View Author:Louis Menand
“Sometimes people won't even finish a piece that you wrote, because they've already decided what it is that you want to say, and generally I, whatever I say in the first half of the piece, you should not assume I'm going to end up with, but they don't finish reading them. So, and people read fast and stuff.” PeopleWantShouldFirstsEndsSometimesReadingStuffHalfPiecesDecidedAssuming 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
