The paper is patient, but the reader is not.

A work is perfectly finished only when nothing can be added to it and nothing taken away.

We live in an age in which superfluous ideas abound and essential ideas are lacking.

Words, like glasses, obscure everything they do not make clear. Before using a fine word, make a place for it.

Before using a fine word, make a place for it.

Professional critics are incapable of distinguishing and appreciating either diamonds in the rough or gold in bars. They are traders, and in literature know only the coins that are current. Their critical lab has scales and weights, but neither crucible or touchstone.