...I have come to make distinctions between what I call the academy and literature, the moral equivalents of church and God. The a...cademy may lie, but literature tries to tell the truth.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
A new kind of award has been added--the deathbed award. It is not an award of any kind. Either the recipient has not acted at all,... or was not nominated, or did not win the award the last few times around. It is intended to relieve the guilty conscience of the Academy members and save face in front of the public. The Academy has the horrible taste to have a star, choking with emotion, present this deathbed award so that there can be no doubt in anybody's mind why the award is so hurriedly given. Lucky is the actor who is too sick to watch the proceedings on television.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
Close to the academy in this town they have erected a sort of gallows for the pupils to practice on. I thought that they might as ...well hang at once all who need to go through such exercises in so new a country, where there is nothing to hinder their living an outdoor life. Better omit Blair, and take the air.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I realized early on that the academy and the literary world alike--and I don't think there really is a distinction between the two...--are always dominated by fools, knaves, charlatans and bureaucrats. And that being the case, any human being, male or female, of whatever status, who has a voice of her or his own, is not going to be liked.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
In this distribution of functions, the scholar is the delegated intellect. In the right state, he is, Man Thinking. In the degener...ate state, when the victim of society, he tends to become a mere thinker, or, still worse, the parrot of other men's thinking.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »
I've tried to open the door. My knock isn't that big a sound. But it is like the knock in "The Wizard of Oz." It set up this echo ...through the halls until it was heard by everyone.LESSATTRIBUTION DETAIL »