“People used to expect literary novels to deepen the experience of livi...” — Brian Reynolds Myers Quote

“People used to expect literary novels to deepen the experience of living; now they are happy with any sustained display of writerly cleverness.”

“That's a mistake I think that a lot of Western observers make is to assume that Korean nationalism is hundreds if not thousands of years old. When in fact nationalism is incompatible with Korean Confucian tradition.”

“Confucianism is all about tempering your instincts with intellectual discipline, with book learning.”

“The queen of crime, Agatha Christie, was always more concerned about the clockwork cleverness of the plot, never the investigator.”

“The obstinacy of cleverness and reason is nothing to the obstinacy of folly and inanity.”

“The thing is, comedy's gone in a weird direction. People are really into ironic comedy and fakeness and cleverness.”