The little honesty that exists among authors is discernible in the unconscionable way they misquote from the writings of others. – Arthur Schopenhauer, “On Authorship and Style,” translated from German by Mrs. R

For I often please myself with the fancy, now that I may have saved from oblivion the only striking passage in a whole volume, and now that I may have attracted notice to a writer undeservedly forgotten. – Samuel Taylor Coleridge

I can get myself awfully worked up, just as a fine sentence or paragraph can send me into shivery rapture. – Steve Almond, “Night of the Living Freak,” Candyfreak: A Journey through the Cho

People who rarely read long books, or even short stories, still appreciate the greatest examples of the shortest literary genres. I have long been fascinated by these short genres. They seem to lie just where my heart is, somewhere between literature and philosophy. – Gary Saul Morson, The Long and Short of It: From Aphorism to Novel, 2012