One measure of friendship consists not in the number of things friends can discuss, but in the number of things they need no longer mention.
Clifton FadimanRead
To read in bed is to draw around us invisible, noiseless curtains. Then at last we are in a room of our own and are ready to burrow back, back to that private life of the imagination we all led as a child and to whose secret satisfactions so many of us have mislaid the key.
Interpretation
Reading in bed creates a private escape into our imaginations.
Clifton Fadiman's quote highlights the intimate and personal experience of reading in bed, likening it to a retreat into a private world of imagination. It suggests that through reading, we can reclaim the joy and comfort we experienced as children, allowing ourselves to rediscover the hidden pleasures that lie in the stories we immerse ourselves in, away from the noise of the outside world.
In practice
In a book club discussion about intimate reading experiences.
One measure of friendship consists not in the number of things friends can discuss, but in the number of things they need no longer mention.
Insomnia is a gross feeder. It will nourish itself on any kind of thinking, including thinking about not thinking.
A sense of humor is the ability to understand a joke - and that the joke is oneself.
There are two kinds of writers; the great ones who can give you truths, and the lessor ones, who can only give you themselves.
When you reread a classic, you do not see more in the book than you did before; you see more in you than there was before.
A sense of humor is the ability to understand a joke-and that the joke is oneself.
Racial discrimination in public education is unconstitutional.....All provisions of federal, state or local law requiring or permitting such discrimination must yield to this principle.
I love developing children as characters. Children rarely have important roles in literary fiction - they are usually defined as cute or precious, or they create a plot by being kidnapped or dying.
LECTURER, n. One with his hand in your pocket, his tongue in your ear and his faith in your patience.
You can't stop a teacher when they want to do something. They just do it.
I think instead writers and publishers and readers need to go to the places where people are, and make the argument that there is great value to the quiet, contemplative process of reading a novel, that reading great books carefully offers pleasures and consolations that no iPad app ever can.
It is easy to overlook the importance of the young in underdeveloped countries. It is the natural course for nations, and diplomats, and those who publish newspapers, to speak to the established order. Seeking out the young requires a conscious effort.
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