Quote

You don't want to move toward some utopian literary situation where everybody's free of all conventions. That's ridiculous! Conventions are what you need. You have nothing to break down if you don't have conventions.

Lev Grossman

Change background

T
T
T

Change font

TAGS & TOPICS

Lev Grossman
Age: 55
Born: 1969
Born: June 26
Journalist
Literary Critic
Novelist
Science Fiction Writer
Writer
Lexington
Massachusetts
Break
Everybody
Situation
Utopian
Free
Conventions
Moving
Literary
Nothing
Ridiculous
Need
Toward
Needs
Move

More quotes by Lev Grossman

Image
The truth doesn't always make a good story, does it?
Lev Grossman
Image
Supposedly I've got traces of an English accent, though I can't hear it. I must have inherited it from my mother, who's English, and then I think it was exacerbated by the fact that I live with an Australian.
Lev Grossman
Image
How often have I met and disliked writers whose books I love and conversely, hated the books and then wound up liking the writer? Too often.
Lev Grossman
Image
Young minds - young brains - need stories and ideas like the ones in those [censored and banned] books in order to grow. They need ideas that you disagree with. They need ideas that I disagree with. Or they'll never be able to figure out what ideas they believe in.
Lev Grossman
Image
It's natural for a child to assume that his or her own childhood is unremarkable.
Lev Grossman
Image
I got my heart's desire, and there my troubles began.
Lev Grossman
Image
I recognize that on paper, you can't really tell that I'm a fan or a nerd.
Lev Grossman
Image
Book tours are excellent things, and one is lucky to get to go on one, but they have a way of leeching away one's will to live.
Lev Grossman
Image
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.
Lev Grossman
Image
People - me included - want to get excited about books. Good books are a good thing.
Lev Grossman
Image
Do you promise to hate my parents as much as I do? Oh, absolutely, Quentin said. Maybe even more.
Lev Grossman
Image
I read a lot of literary theory when I was in graduate school, especially about novels, and the best book I ever read about endings was Peter Brooks' 'Reading for the Plot. '
Lev Grossman
Image
It's time to live with what we have and mourn what we lost.
Lev Grossman
Image
I have spent many, many hours reading J.K. Rowling's work. I am a known 'Harry Potter' fan.
Lev Grossman
Image
That’s what death did, it treated you like a child, like everything you had ever thought and done and cared about was just a child’s game, to be crumpled up and thrown away when it was over. It didn’t matter. Death didn’t respect you. Death thought you were bullshit, and it wanted to make sure you knew it.
Lev Grossman
Image
Magic is wild, dangerous stuff. You never realize how useful limitations are until it's much too late.
Lev Grossman
Image
It's a great thing when you feel that you recognize yourself, deeply and movingly, in a work of literature.
Lev Grossman
Image
Careful what you hunt, lest you catch it.
Lev Grossman
Image
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.
Lev Grossman
Image
You're saying the gods don't have free will. The power to make mistakes, Penny said. Only we have that. Mortals
Lev Grossman