“I think the hardest thing to teach a student is that what he or she puts down on paper is changeable. It's not the final thing, it's the first thing, which may just be the suggestive, vague identification of something that you have to come back to and rewrite.” ThinkingFirstsMayTeachStudentsPaperFinalsHardestEditingVagueHardest ThingIdentification Author:M. H. Abrams
“At first, students tend to freeze at the first effort. The breakthrough comes when they realize that they can make it better - can identify what their purposes were and realize better ways to achieve those purposes.” WayFirstsPurposeRealizingEffortTeachingAchieveStudentsBreakthroughBetter WaysFreeze Author:M. H. Abrams
“When I was a graduate student, the leading spirits at Harvard were interested in the history of ideas.” InspirationalIdeasFunnySpiritStudentsGraduatesGraduationHarvardGraduate Students Author:M. H. Abrams
“John Updike is always fun. And one of my former students, Tom Pynchon. And Harold Bloom, another former student.” FunStudentsFormerTomsFormer Students Author:M. H. Abrams
