'Jane Eyre,' when I think of that book, it conjures up the best moments of college English courses. Literature is extraordinary, especially when you have a good professor.
I kind of dislike 'For Whom the Bell Tolls,' but most of Hemingway in general, mainly because his stylistic shenanigans ruined so many young writers of my generation who tried to imitate him. I think, for his time, he moved fiction to a different level stylistically, or at least added to the dialogue, but in our time, he's annoying.
For those of us learning the way to financial serenity and solvency, the envelope system teaches prudence, patience, and perseverance. You can only spend what you have.
The English National Opera does have some terrific productions, which are accessible, and they're not too ridiculously expensive.
I had this epiphany that I like the interaction with people. I wanted to make things happen at a grassroots level.
As an artist, my wheelhouse is 19th-century literature. I want to write realist novels in a Victorian sense, and the writers I admire in that style tend to do omniscient narration.
If Obama's enormous symbolic power draws primarily from being the country's first black president, it also draws from his membership in hip-hop's foundational generation.
I think the job of writing and literature is to encourage each one of us to believe that we're living in a story.