Roger Rosenblatt Quotes - Page 2

Slum kids die slowly, their lives eroded at so languid a pace that even they would have trouble tracing the disintegration. To the children of war death explodes like a car bomb.

Live in the past, but don't remember too much.

Come September, children return to school, grownups to work, and the brain to the head.

The trick in foraging for a tooth lost in coffee grounds is not to be misled by the clumps. The only way to be sure is to rub each clump between your thumb and index finger, which makes a mess of your hands.

When you have the goods, you don't need to dress up what you're writing.

Every writing teacher gives the subliminal message, every time they teach: 'Your life counts for something.' In no other subject that I know of is that message given.

Just because the person who criticizes you is an idiot doesn't make him wrong.

The belief in potential human virtue underlies the whole idea of the Bill of Rights; the document is a very tough guardian of that belief.

Time can be such a menace to a man. By this age do that; by that age do better.

Blame is especially useful in situations in which there is no apparent villain-those moments that prove, despite our advancement of learning, how susceptible we are to high winds and wet roads.

Do not keep company with people who speak of careers. Not only are such people uninteresting in themselves; they also have no interest in anything interesting. . . . Keep company with people who are interested in the world outside themselves. The one who never asks you what you are working on; who never inquires as to the success of your latest project; who never uses the word career as a noun -- he is your friend.

There is nothing like a man for bringing out the animal in an animal.

Remote control. Ingenious contradiction of terms. Fits like a handshake. Aims like a gun.