I never appreciated ‘positive heroes’ in literature. They are almost always cliches, copies of copies, until the model is exhausted. I prefer perplexity, doubt, uncertainty, not just because it provides…
Continue ReadingMy interests were aroused, and my faith in the cliches of the subject destroyed, as so often with other subjects, by the discussions with my friend, Aaron Director.
Continue ReadingBuzzwords and cliches – those are stock in trade. There’s nothing wrong with them.
Continue ReadingI encourage students to pursue an idea far enough so they can see what the cliches and stereotypes are. Only then do they begin to hit pay dirt.
Continue ReadingIt is a cliche that most cliches are true, but then like most cliches, that cliche is untrue.
Continue ReadingI think to be oversensitive about cliches is like being oversensitive about table manners.
Continue ReadingYou need cliches. Cliches are what people respond to.
Continue ReadingI’ve never understood why artists, who so often condescend to the cliches of their own culture, are so eager to embrace the cliches of cultures they know nothing about.
Continue ReadingOur writers are full of cliches just as old barns are full of bats. There is obviously no rule about this, except that anything that you suspect of being a…
Continue ReadingI’m working class, and want people to know I’m not unintelligent and all the other cliches that come with it.
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