Quotes from Joan Acocella

What allows genius to flower is not neurosis but its opposite... ordinary Sunday-school virtues such as tenacity and above all the ability to survive disappointment.

Those who lament the dissolution of the American family-kids with no way to get to Girl Scouts, aging parents put into nursing homes-should remember what it was that kept the American family together: women's blood.

Art, like Nebraska, is a journey into thin air, a walk into whiteness, where you lose everything but yourself.

Alcohol may also persuade us that we have found the truth about life, a comforting experience rarely available in the sober hour.