We read deeply for varied reasons, most of them familiar: that we cannot know enough people profoundly enough; that we need to know ourselves better; that we require knowledge, not just of self and others, but of the way things…

Quote by Harold Bloom

Topics: Harold Bloom Quotes

I take it that a successful therapy is an oxymoron.

I take it that a successful therapy is an oxymoron.

What I think I have in common with the school of deconstruction is the mode...

What I think I have in common with the school of deconstruction is the mode...

The world gets older, without getting either better or worse and so does literature. But...

The world gets older, without getting either better or worse and so does literature. But...

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...

In the finest critics one hears the full cry of the human. They tell one...

In the finest critics one hears the full cry of the human. They tell one...

Sometimes one succeeds, sometimes one fails.

Sometimes one succeeds, sometimes one fails.

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...

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...

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...

All that a critic, as critic, can give poets is the deadly encouragement that never...

All that a critic, as critic, can give poets is the deadly encouragement that never...

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...

No poem, not even Shakespeare or Milton or Chaucer, is ever strong enough to totally...

No poem, not even Shakespeare or Milton or Chaucer, is ever strong enough to totally...

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...

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...

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...

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 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 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...

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 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...