“That afternoon he told me that the difference between human beings and animals was that human beings were able to dream while awake. He said the purpose of books was to permit us to exercise that faculty. Art, he said, was a controlled madness… He said books weren't made of themes, which you could write essays about, but of images that inserted themselves into your brain and replaced what you were seeing with your eyes.” WritingHumansArtMadeSaidBookDreamEyeAblePurposeDifferencesHuman BeingsAnimalBrainSeeingExerciseMadnessAwakeThemeFacultyControlledPermitAfternoonReplacedEssaysHuman Beings And Animals Author:Steven Millhauser
“But what struck me was the book-madness of the place--books lay scattered across the unmade bed and the top of a battered-looking desk, books stood in knee-high piles on the floor, books were crammed sideways and right side up in a narrow bookcase that rose higher than my head and leaned dangerously from the wall, books sat in stacks on top of a dingy dresser. The closet door was propped open by a pile of books, and from beneath the bed a book stuck out beside the toe of a maroon slipper.” BookSidesDoorsWallHigherBedMadnessLaysRoseStuckKneesSatDesksToesClosetsSidewaysBatteredSlippersDressersBookcasesMaroonUnmade Beds Book:Dangerous Laughter Source: Dangerous Laughter