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It's a terrible thing for a book, when you feel like you're supposed to like it.

Lev Grossman

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Lev Grossman
Age: 55
Born: 1969
Born: June 26
Journalist
Literary Critic
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Lexington
Massachusetts
Feels
Thing
Like
Supposed
Terrible
Book
Feel

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Wasn't there a spell for making yourself happy? Somebody must have invented one. How could he have missed it? Why didn't they teach it? Was it in the library, a flying book fluttering just out of reach, beating its wings against some high window?
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The paradox of the English country house is that its state of permanent decline, the fact that its heyday is always behind it, is part of the seduction, just as it is part of the seduction of books in general.
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Quentin had an obsolete sailing ship that had been raised from the dead. He had psychotically effective swordsman and an enigmatic witch-queen. It wasn't the Fellowship of the Ring, but then again he wasn't trying to save the world from Sauron, he was trying to perform a tax audit on a bunch of hick islanders.
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It's a great thing when you feel that you recognize yourself, deeply and movingly, in a work of literature.
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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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You're all so obsessed with other worlds, you're so convinced that this one is crap and everywhere else is great, but you've never bothered to figure out what's going on here!
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Do you promise to hate my parents as much as I do? Oh, absolutely, Quentin said. Maybe even more.
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It's natural for a child to assume that his or her own childhood is unremarkable.
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I recognize that on paper, you can't really tell that I'm a fan or a nerd.
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You're saying the gods don't have free will. The power to make mistakes, Penny said. Only we have that. Mortals
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Stop looking for the next secret door that is going to lead you to your real life. Stop waiting. This is it: there's nothing else.
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I think for a long time, I was paralyzed by some of my hopes and ideals for what my life was going to be like. I had this perfect vision of how my life should go, but it seemed - it was - impossible to realize, so I sat around for a long, long time doing almost nothing at all.
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People - me included - want to get excited about books. Good books are a good thing.
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Being a writer can be isolating. It's good to be among readers and booksellers.
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The problem with growing up is that once you're grown up, the people who aren't grown up aren't fun anymore.
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For just one second, look at your life and see how perfect it is. Stop looking for the next secret door that is going to lead you to your real life. Stop waiting. This is it: there's nothing else. It's here, and you'd better decide to enjoy it or you're going to be miserable wherever you go, for the rest of your life, forever.
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Genuinely social people never ceased to amaze him. Their brains seemed to generate an inexhaustible fund of things to say, naturally, with no effort, out of nothing at all.
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It turns out that there is something that can compete with free: easy.
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We're wired to expect the world to be brighter and more meaningful and more obviously interesting than it actually is. And when we realize that it isn't, we start looking around for the real world.
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The line between outside and inside is fuzzier in fantasy. Maybe that's something people are looking for.
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