Home / Authors / Michael Silverblatt Biography

Michael Silverblatt Biography

Author

Michael Silverblatt, born on August 6, 1952, is a renowned cultural critic and radio host. He is known for his in-depth cultural analysis and distinctive radio style, having been a long-time host on KCRW radio.

Giving Has Beens Book Feelings Goodness Access Surrender Witness Battered

Author:Michael Silverblatt

“In the course of interviewing, I've discovered that if you don't give your guest something to react to, they don't react. They simply say what they've been saying every time they've been interviewed. The last thing you want is to have people say to you what they've said to someone else.”

People Ifs Want Giving Said Lasts Courses Guests

Author:Michael Silverblatt

“I'm very against interviewers who do not have time to read the work, who accept jobs knowing that they don't have time to do the preparation.”

Jobs Accepting Knowing Preparation Interviewers

Author:Michael Silverblatt

“I like to think that at best the interview becomes something like the unaccountable experience of talking to oneself in a mirror.”

Thinking Talking Mirrors Oneself Interviews

Author:Michael Silverblatt

“People tell me I have the best job in the world, which is true, but I also work with some of the best people in the world.”

People World Jobs Best Job

Author:Michael Silverblatt

“I'm often a crier and many things make me cry. I come from a crying family - my mother cries, my grandma used to cry. It was never shameful to cry. My father never told me men don't cry.”

Men Used Mother Father Cry Grandma Shameful My Grandma

Author:Michael Silverblatt

“A beautiful word in the middle of a sentence can sometimes reduce me to tears in an interview, and when I'm reading, too. I've sometimes wondered whether I'm at the point of tears all the time because I use my eyes so much that they're strained and on the verge of tears anyway.”

Sometimes Use Eye Beautiful Reading Middle Tears Sentences Interviews Verge Beautiful Words

Author:Michael Silverblatt

“I thought I was going to be a math major. My parents were both accountants and wanted me to major in business. Math was our compromise.”

Wanted Parent Majors Math Compromise Accountants

Author:Michael Silverblatt

“If I want to have a conversation, I can't have a list of questions, because the second question on the list is going to interrupt the conversation.”

Ifs Want I Can Conversation Lists

Author:Michael Silverblatt

“The art (as opposed to the technology) of reading requires that you develop a beautiful tolerance for incomprehension. The greatest books are the books that you come to understand more deeply with time, with age and with rereading.”

Art Book Age Beautiful Reading Technology Tolerance Rereading Incomprehension Greatest Book

Author:Michael Silverblatt

“She taught you how to be a person who refuses anything but the meaningful.”

Persons Taught Refuse Meaningful

Author:Michael Silverblatt

“A bleak, black book, it engenders awe and despair. I have read it in its entirety 4 1/2 times, each time finding its resonance and beauty so great as to demand another reading. As I read, I found myself devastated by the thoroughness of the book's annihilating sensibility and revived by the beauty of its language, the complexity of its design, the melancholy, horror and stoic sympathy in its rendering of what we used to call the human condition.”

About the Author

Born: August 6, 1952
Known for: Author
Quotes: 12

Books & Sources

Similar Authors

Stephen D. KrashenBrowse related quotes
Donalyn MillerBrowse related quotes
Alberto ManguelBrowse related quotes
Lawrence Clark PowellBrowse related quotes
Sven BirkertsBrowse related quotes
Beverly ClearyBrowse related quotes
Lewis BuzbeeBrowse related quotes
Holbrook JacksonBrowse related quotes
Judy BlumeBrowse related quotes
Sandra CisnerosBrowse related quotes

Michael Silverblatt Biography

Related Quotes