122 Quotes by Michael Dirda

Many readers simply can't stomach fantasy. They immediately picture elves with broadswords or mighty-thewed barbarians with battle axes, seeking the bejeweled Coronet of Obeisance ... (But) the best fantasies pull aside the velvet curtain of mere appearance. ... In most instances, fantasy ultimately returns us to our own now re-enchanted world, reminding us that it is neither prosaic nor meaningless, and that how we live and what we do truly matters.

I also think of some books as my friends and i like to have them around. They brighten my life.

Fiction is a house with many stately mansions, but also one in which it is wise, at least sometimes, to swing from the chandeliers.

As book collectors know all too well: We only regret our economies, never our extravagances.

A good rule of thumb is: Pack twice as many books as changes of underwear.

The memory of a tone, the rhythm of an author's sentences, the sorrow we felt on a novel's last page--perhaps that is all that we can expect to keep from books.

Science fiction is, after all, the art of extrapolation.

What matters are those ordinary acts of kindness and of love, not vaulting ambition with its attendant hubris and smugness.

Make sure your message is clear, yet that you are faithful to its complexity.