“Popular culture no longer craves archangels and new dawns. Pop culture traffics in vampires and deads of night.” NightCulturePopsVampireDawnTrafficCravePop CulturePopular CultureArchangel Author:James Wolcott
“Telling writers to shut up is a sure way to keep them talking.” WayTalkingShut Up Author:James Wolcott
“High expectations weren't nurtured in my neck of nowhere back then - children weren't fawned over from an early age as 'gifted' and groomed for a prizewinning future; self-esteem was considered something you had to pick from the garden yourself.” ChildrenSelfAgeSelf EsteemPicksExpectationsGardenEsteemNecksBirthdayGiftedHigh ExpectationsFuture Self Author:James Wolcott
“I understand that one of the purposes of bipartisanship is to cram something difficult and necessary down the American people's gullets for which neither party has the fortitude to assume full responsibility. It's a way of turning a possible gangplank into a teeter-totter.” PeopleWayPurposeDifficultPartyResponsibilityAssumingFortitudeBipartisanship Author:James Wolcott
“My high-school papers, my college-application essays, read like Norman Mailer packed in a crunchy-peanut-butter sandwich.” SchoolCollegePaperHigh SchoolApplicationPapersEssaysSandwichesPeanutsPeanut ButterCrunchyPeanut Butter Sandwiches Author:James Wolcott
“A lost election can have the jolt of a drop through the gallows door, leading to a dark night of the soul in which the future presses down like a cloud that will never lift.” SoulNightLostDarkDoorsElectionPressesCloudsLiftsDark NightGallowsDark Night Of The Soul Author:James Wolcott
“A new political-entertainment class has moved into the noisy void once occupied by the sage pontiffs of yore, a class just as polarized as our partisan divide: one side holding up a fun-house mirror to folly, the other side reveling in its own warped reflection.” PoliticalHouseFunSidesClassReflectionMirrorsMovedEntertainmentFollyDividesVoidSagePartisansNoisy Author:James Wolcott
“At 'The Village Voice,' there were all these fevers inside the offices, that would break out into full-scale rumbles between writers.” VoiceBreakOfficeScalesVillageFeverBreak OutRumble Author:James Wolcott
“Book-jacket design may become a lost art, like album-cover design, without which late-20th-century iconography would have been pauperized.” MayHas BeensArtBookLostCenturyDesignLateAlbums20th CenturyJacketsIconographyLost ArtAlbum Covers Author:James Wolcott
“Even the most piddling life is of momentous consequence to its owner.” WarLife IsPeaceConsequenceOwnersAnti WarAntiwar Author:James Wolcott