Harold Bloom Quotes

i'm in a muddle about a lot of things -- i've just discovered that i've a mind, and i'm starting to read" "read what?" "everything. i have to pick and choose, of course, but mostly things that make me think.

We read deeply for varied reasons, most of them familiar: that we cannot know enough people profoundly enough; that we need to know ourselves better; that we require knowledge, not just of self and others, but of the way things are. Yet the strongest, most authentic motive for deep reading…is the search for a difficult pleasure.

To me, searching for perfection isn't anywhere near as interesting as trying to find your own voice.

I read incessantly, searching for the things that might move me.

No baby boomer has a completely original idea, but after 13 years on 'Today' and another 11 on 'Dateline,' almost 30 years total at NBC, I felt the urge to find out what was 'behind the camera.' I had the feeling there was 'something more,' though 'more' might be less.

I was on my own at Wellesley, surrounded by a lot of young women who were motivated and intellectually curious. I started to read because I was required to do so for class, but I soon found myself enjoying the seclusion of the library. I came to see reading as an important way to learn about people, including myself.

I wouldn't presume to know something, but I have lots to learn and that's what I attempt to do through my work.

I want people to believe in themselves. I want intellectual curiosity. I want someone who realizes that they don't know it all and that they're dying to learn.

By the time I got to college, mind expansion had lost its appeal.

The part of the process that's exciting to me is feeling like I'm in a place I've never been before, in every way. Without that, I don't know if I'd be a writer.

My motto is never to try to imitate anybody: I have always looked inward and followed the inward voice.

The only intention I've ever had creatively, as a musician, is to be as different from myself as possible.

There's a whole stereotype of the jazz musician that's into poetry and reading and metaphysics and all that stuff. Really, it's a sign of someone who's searching, whose mind is open, looking for answers. Whatever ideas you may come up with, the beautiful thing is the search.

I just love to read, learn, and think through complex things.

He has left off reading altogether, to the great improvement of his originality.

The thing you start noticing as books go by, is that you become aware not only of a shape of a career, but of your themes and interests. You don't want writing tricks where you make the same joke every time, but you do start to notice what consumes your mind, or what drives you.

I think I write in order to discover on my shelf a new book that I would enjoy reading, or to see a new play that would engross me.

I started reading. I read everything I could get my hands on...By the time I was thirteen I had read myself out of Harlem. I had read every book in two libraries and had a card for the Forty-Second Street branch.

People don't care to read what they already think or what any people think - they know all that well enough. They want to know what they ought to think.

Choosing the freedom to be uninteresting never quite worked for me.

Take the risk of thinking for yourself. Much more happiness, truth, beauty and wisdom will come to you that way.

I'm incredibly restless. I read a lot of poetry. I also find myself reading the first 20 pages of everything, looking for something. And you know what? I'm usually looking for the book I'm writing. And it's not out there!

Every day I wake up and that’s my goal, to be on a constant quest for knowledge and do something different, being unique and being uncommon.

Almost all of my many passionate interests, and my many changes of mind, came through books. Books prompted the many vows I made to myself.

Reading is a rendezvous with your soul.