We all fear loneliness, madness, dying. Shakespeare and Walt Whitman, Leopardi and Hart Crane will not cure those fears. And yet these poets bring us fire and light.
Harold BloomRead
I am naive enough to read incessantly because I cannot, on my own, get to know enough people profoundly enough.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote expresses the value of reading as a means to deeply understand people and the world.
Harold Bloom reflects on the importance of reading as a way to gain knowledge and understanding of the complexities of human nature and society. He acknowledges his own limitations in forming profound connections with people, suggesting that literature provides a different avenue to explore the depths of human experiences and emotions that might be harder to access through personal interactions alone.
Themes
ReadingKnowledgeUnderstandingPeopleLiteratureExperience
In practice
Example use cases
During a book club meeting, I might use this quote to highlight how reading opens doors to understanding diverse perspectives.
More from Harold Bloom
All quotes →Reading well is one of the greatest pleasures that solitude can afford you.
Harold BloomRead
Socrates, in Plato, formulates ideas of order: the Iliad, like Shakespeare, knows that a violent disorder is a great order.
Harold BloomRead
Reading the very best writers—let us say Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Tolstoy—is not going to make us better citizens. Art is perfectly useless, according to the sublime Oscar Wilde, who was right about everything. He also told us that all bad poetry is sincere. Had I the power to do so, I would command that these words be engraved above every gate at every university, so that each student might ponder the splendor of the insight.
Harold BloomRead
I have never believed that the critic is the rival of the poet, but I do believe that criticism is a genre of literature or it does not exist.
Harold BloomRead
Everyone wants a prodigy to fail; it makes our mediocrity more bearable.
Harold BloomRead
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Within the confines of the lecture hall, no other virtue exists but plain intellectual integrity.
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