Lev Grossman Quotes

I read 'The Rum Diary,' and I didn't really like it very much.

'The Da Vinci Code' was pretty awful. A good idea disappointingly handled.

I hope for so much from every book I read. And time and again, I find myself disappointed. I look across my bookshelves and see hundreds of titles which in my memory seem merely mediocre or second-rate. Only occasionally does a novel appear for which I feel a lasting passion, a book that I think could in time become a classic.

I sort of try to read the books when they come out impartially and not make up my mind, but the fact is when I was reading the sixth, 'Harry Potter And The Half-Blood Prince', there were bits in there where I was going, 'God, I would love to do that because it's so good'.

I often find myself listening to a record because a lot of people or magazines have told me it's good and I'm supposed to like it, and I try to stay in touch with what's happening and I'm also a fan of music. I find myself trying to like something that I really don't think is that great.

Shakespeare didn't work at all for me.

There are always people screeching and upset that I did this or didn't do that. Basically, they're upset that I didn't rewrite an earlier book they particularly liked.

I hated Hemingway. I liked Faulkner but he was a bore.

I haven't any right to criticize books, and I don't do it except when I hate them. I often want to criticize Jane Austen, but her books madden me so that I can't conceal my frenzy from the reader; and therefore I have to stop every time I begin. Every time I read Pride and Prejudice I want to dig her up and beat her over the skull with her own shin-bone.

I have this very moment finished reading a novel called The Vicar of Wakefield [by Oliver Goldsmith].... It appears to me, to be impossible any person could read this book through with a dry eye and yet, I don't much like it.... There is but very little story, the plot is thin, the incidents very rare, the sentiments uncommon, the vicar is contented, humble, pious, virtuous--but upon the whole the book has not at all satisfied my expectations.

It's terrible for people when they really love a book and there's an adaptation and they don't like it, because it's almost like you have this personal connection to the original material.

I read 'Twilight' when I was overseas. I actually liked it. I didn't expect to, because I generally don't like fantasy like that because it's far-fetched, but I liked it. It's pretty good.

I can only be instinctive in my reaction to Shakespeare.

I really enjoyed reading 'The Da Vinci Code,' but from a literary standpoint, the book did not live up to the hype.

What It Means When a Man Falls from the Sky' by Lesley Nneka Arimah blew my mind.

It is my biggest regret that I gave up 10 runs on my last outing as a Ranger.

Everybody expects you to play well, and when you don't have the results, that's tough.

I feel whenever my shows are too hyped, they usually don't work.

I'm reading 'Ten Storey Love Song' by Richard Milward. I read his first novel, 'Apples,' after hearing a reading of his in the Hague. I really enjoyed it, so I've started this one.

I read the novel 'Miracle at St. Anna' when it was first released, and I loved it.

I'm not really happy with my football career, but I can't complain about it, either.

The book has never been written which is to be accepted without any allowance.

I really don't think we should dismiss a book because we feel messed about intellectually. Or emotionally. That's the writer's job!

Ive read an awful lot of books, Ive read alot of awful books

No book, however good, can survive a hostile reading.