Quote of the Day (Joseph Epstein, on Why a Writer Reads Slowly)

“My reading is slowed down even further by my being a writer. Most reasonably scrupulous people reading a sentence take the following quick inventory: Was it clear? Correct? Precise? Interesting? If they have the least esthetic sense, they will perhaps add, Beautiful? But the writer, when confronted with an interesting or beautiful sentence, must ask two other questions: First, How was it done? Second, How, properly camouflaged, might its magic be stolen for my own writing? This, too, can slow a fellow down.”—American essayist and editor Joseph Epstein, “Stop and Smell the Prose,” The Weekly Standard, Jan. 18, 1999