Familiarity Breeds Content Quotes

“The student revolution had begun, and I—in taste, in temperament, in point of view—had ancien régime so clearly written all over me that I might as well have worn a powdered wig.”
― Joseph Epstein, Familiarity Breeds Content: New and Selected Essays

“Although it is probably the sheerest economic jealousy on my part, it lifts my spirits to discover that someone driving a Rolls-Royce looks sad. In traffic I never give such people a break; nor do I give a break to people who drive Cadillacs, Mercedeses, Jaguars, or BMWs; I figure that they have already had their breaks in life.”
― Joseph Epstein, Familiarity Breeds Content: New and Selected Essays

“Once, when Szell stormed out of the Metropolitan Opera, someone said that he was his own worst enemy. To which Rudolf Bing responded, “Not while I’m alive.”
― Joseph Epstein, Familiarity Breeds Content: New and Selected Essays

“In The Truants, William Barrett’s splendid memoir of the Partisan Review crowd, Barrett recalls Delmore Schwartz remarking, “ ‘Analytic exuberance’—Philip Rahv’s euphemism for putting a knife in your back.”
― Joseph Epstein, Familiarity Breeds Content: New and Selected Essays

“but he wished Trilling didn’t say even the most obvious things in a tone of voice more appropriate for announcing a cure for cancer.”
― Joseph Epstein, Familiarity Breeds Content: New and Selected Essays

“Again, Anthony Powell notes of another of his characters that he spoke a number of foreign languages with facility, and that, as with all people who speak foreign languages easily, he was not quite to be trusted.”
― Joseph Epstein, Familiarity Breeds Content: New and Selected Essays

“The reason I no longer take any interest in mental games, I have concluded, is that I do mental work, and consequently seem to have little in the way of mental energy left for mental play.”
― Joseph Epstein, Familiarity Breeds Content: New and Selected Essays

“A poem is never finished,” said Valéry, “but only abandoned.”
― Joseph Epstein, Familiarity Breeds Content: New and Selected Essays