Lev Grossman Quotes
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When I got to college I simply decided that I could speak French, because I just could not spend any more time in French classes. I went ahead and took courses on French literature, some of them even taught in French.
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I have spent many, many hours reading J.K. Rowling's work. I am a known 'Harry Potter' fan.
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It seems to me that the novel as a medium has a very low signal-to-noise ratio. By which I mean: there are a lot of novels published, but the vast majority of them don't represent major contributions to the medium.
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I've read plenty of J.G. Ballard, but I'm not really a Ballardian. I've met Ballardians, and I know when I can't compete. I like Ballard in his relatively unchallenging apocalyptic mode: 'Vermilion Sands,' 'The Drowned World,' 'The Burning World,' 'The Crystal World.'
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People - me included - want to get excited about books. Good books are a good thing.
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It's a terrible thing for a book, when you feel like you're supposed to like it.
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Oddly, the meanings of books are defined for me much more by their beginnings and middles than they are by their endings.
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Even though I have spent literally years of my life trying to learn another language, any other language - and even though I have in the past claimed in several key professional contexts that I speak other languages - I am in fact still trapped inside the bubble of English.
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I think every fantasy reader secretly believes they know how magic works.
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When I left college I thought - based on a staggeringly inadequate understanding of how the world worked - that I might like to go into book publishing.
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A lot of young-adult authors, great ones, have tried their hands at literary fiction, and not a lot of them have succeeded. Not even Roald Dahl could switch-hit, and not for lack of trying.