No poem, not even Shakespeare or Milton or Chaucer, is ever strong enough to totally exclude every crucial precursor text or poem.

Quote by Harold Bloom

Topics: Harold Bloom Quotes

The second, and I think this is the much more overt and I think it...

The second, and I think this is the much more overt and I think it...

Shakespeare will not make us better, and he will not make us worse, but he...

Shakespeare will not make us better, and he will not make us worse, but he...

I take it that a successful therapy is an oxymoron.

I take it that a successful therapy is an oxymoron.

Shakespeare is the true multicultural author. He exists in all languages. He is put on...

Shakespeare is the true multicultural author. He exists in all languages. He is put on...

Criticism starts - it has to start - with a real passion for reading. It...

Criticism starts - it has to start - with a real passion for reading. It...

I have never believed that the critic is the rival of the poet, but I...

I have never believed that the critic is the rival of the poet, but I...

We read deeply for varied reasons, most of them familiar: that we cannot know enough...

We read deeply for varied reasons, most of them familiar: that we cannot know enough...

What we call a poem is mostly what is not there on the page. The...

What we call a poem is mostly what is not there on the page. The...

I would say that there is no future for literary studies as such in the...

I would say that there is no future for literary studies as such in the...

Criticism in the universities, I'll have to admit, has entered a phase where I am...

Criticism in the universities, I'll have to admit, has entered a phase where I am...

Shakespeare is universal.

Shakespeare is universal.

What is supposed to be the very essence of Judaism - which is the notion...

What is supposed to be the very essence of Judaism - which is the notion...

I don't believe in myths of decline or myths of progress, even as regards the...

I don't believe in myths of decline or myths of progress, even as regards the...

The world does not get to be a better or a worse place; it just...

The world does not get to be a better or a worse place; it just...

What matters in literature in the end is surely the idiosyncratic, the individual, the flavor...

What matters in literature in the end is surely the idiosyncratic, the individual, the flavor...

If they wish to alleviate the sufferings of the exploited classes, let them live up...

If they wish to alleviate the sufferings of the exploited classes, let them live up...

But in the end, in the end one is alone. We are all of us...

But in the end, in the end one is alone. We are all of us...

In fact, it is Shakespeare who gives us the map of the mind. It is...

In fact, it is Shakespeare who gives us the map of the mind. It is...

I think Freud is about contamination, but I think that is something he learned from...

I think Freud is about contamination, but I think that is something he learned from...

Indeed the three prophecies about the death of individual art are, in their different ways,...

Indeed the three prophecies about the death of individual art are, in their different ways,...