Anthony Lane Quotes

• That is why the ideal literary diet consists of trash and classics; all that has survived, and all that has no reason to survive - books you can read without thinking, and books you have to read if you want to think at all.

  Anthony Lane

  Book, Thinking, Want

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• No new reader, however charitable, could open “Fifty Shades of Grey,” browse a few paragraphs, and reasonably conclude that the author was writing in her first language, or even her fourth.

  Anthony Lane

  Writing, Firsts, Fifty

  "No Pain, No Gain" by Anthony Lane, www.newyorker.com. February 23 & March 2, 2015.

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• The general opinion of “Revenge of the Sith” seems to be that it marks a distinct improvement on the last two episodes, “The Phantom Menace” and “Attack of the Clones.” True, but only in the same way that dying from natural causes is preferable to crucifixion.

  Anthony Lane

  Revenge, Two, Dying

  "Space Case". www.newyorker.com. May 23, 2005.

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• We happen upon ourselves when nothing much happens to us, and we are transformed in the process...

  Anthony Lane

  Process, Happens, Transformed

  "Balancing Acts" by Anthony Lane, www.newyorker.com. July 21, 2014.

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• Harry Potter (Daniel Radcliffe) is now fourteen, and, while he gives little sign of doing what Lord Rochester planned to do at the same age, there are nonetheless changes afoot. Harry's voice, like that of his best friend, Ron (Rupert Grint), sounds like the mating cry of an oboe, and, worse still, the two cease to be best friends.

  Anthony Lane

  Two, Voice, Giving

  "Boy Wonders" by Anthony Lane, www.newyorker.com. November 28, 2005.

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• We are not merely tempered and schooled by failure but compelled, in however subtle a fashion, to become something other than we were.

  Anthony Lane

  Fashion, Subtle, Schooled

  "French Election: Hollandaise" by Anthony Lane, www.newyorker.com. May 7, 2012.

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• That's the trouble with cookbooks. Like sex education and nuclear physics, they are founded on an illusion. They bespeak order, but they end in tears.

  Anthony Lane

  Sex, Order, Tears

  Anthony Lane (2009). “Nobody's Perfect: Writings from The New Yorker”, p.653, Vintage

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• I do have one very brutal writing ritual. If I'm working in the morning, I don't allow myself a cup of tea until I've written two paragraphs. It's harsh.

  Anthony Lane

  Morning, Writing, Two

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• Children, viewed from one angle, are philosophy in motion.

  Anthony Lane

  Children, Philosophy, Angle

  "Go Ask Alice" by Anthony Lane, www.newyorker.com. June 8, 2015.

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• Still, there remains so much to relish and remember.

  Anthony Lane

  Remember, Relish

  "Under the Gun" by Anthony Lane, www.newyorker.com. March 15, 2010.

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• There is more suspense, more dramatic torque, in one page of [Nathaniel] Hawthorne's heart-racked ruminations onthe Christian consciencethaninall Demi Moore's woodland gallops and horizontal barn dancing.

  Anthony Lane

  Christian, Heart, Dancing

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• The obvious precedent for Beijing 2008 was the Berlin Olympics, in 1936. Both were showcases for a muscle-flexing nation, although Hitler made an elementary error when he chose not to dress his young National Socialists in lime-green catsuits laced with twinkling fairy lights.

  Anthony Lane

  Errors, Light, Dresses

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• Cookbooks, it should be stressed, do not belong in the kitchen at all. We keep them there for the sake of appearances; occasionally, we smear their pages together with vibrant green glazes or crimson compotes, in order to delude ourselves, and any passing browsers, that we are practicing cooks; but in all honesty, a cookbook is something you read in the living room, or in the bathroom, or in bed.

  Anthony Lane

  Honesty, Order, Kitchen

  Anthony Lane (2009). “Nobody's Perfect: Writings from The New Yorker”, p.651, Vintage

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