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Quote by Michael Dirda

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Michael Dirda
Michael Dirda

Michael Dirda is an American literary critic and writer, born on November 6, 1948. His work spans a wide range of literary genres, including novels, poetry, and drama. Dirda is known for his in-depth analysis and unique insights, with his reviews frequently appearing in prominent media such as The Washington Post. more

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“Every first-rate editor I have ever heard of reads, edits and rewrites every word that goes into his publication.... Good editors are not 'permissive'; they do not let their colleagues do 'their thing'; they make sure that everybody does the 'paper's thing.' A good, let alone a great editor is an obsessive autocrat with a whim of iron, who rewrites and rewrites, cuts and slashes, until every piece is exactly the way he thinks it should have been done.”

“Art, it seems to me, should simplify finding what conventions of form and what detail one can do without and yet preserve the spirit of the whole - so that all that one has suppressed and cut away is there to the reader's consciousness as much as if it were in type on the page.”