“I think the influence of books is neither direct and more predictable. Books themselves are too unruly, and so are readers.”

“My students should be afraid: choosing what kind of work you'll do to a great extent means choosing who you'll be.”

“Luckily, my job demands constant reading, otherwise I'd have to figure out some other excuse.”

“Social class. Class remains our national awkward topic, usually mumbled over in academic diversity workshops; indeed, most people don't know how to talk about class without automatically coupling it with race. That's because we Americans are loath to recognize that the sky's-the-limit potential we take as our birthright comes at a price far beyond what many Americans--of any race--can afford to pay.”

“Whatever (its) virtues, (the) writing explores the culture of work but marginalizes work itself.”

“I was assigned to the office of a recently deceased faculty member; the office hadn't been cleaned out yet, and a few days before the fall term began, I unlocked the door to find a dirty room whose bookshelves were crammed with empty bourbon bottles and crucifixes, mute testimony to the limits of literature as a sustaining comfort in life.”

“I miss that world from the safe distance of memory.”

“Generations of readers, bored with their own alienating, repetitious jobs, have been mesmerized by Crusoe's essential, civilization-building chores.”

“Reading, my earliest refuge in the unknown world, made me want to venture into it.”

“One of the many drawbacks of this "I teach what I am" approach is that it stifles classroom discussion. Any disagreement with the professor's expertise comes off as an ad hominem attack.”

“Like overzealous religious converts, climbers originally from the lower rungs of society tend to go overboard when they ape the upper class.”