Helen DeWitt - The Last Samurai (2000)

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The master swordsman isn't interested in killing people. He only wants to perfect his art.

Helen DeWitt

I once read somewhere that Sean Connery left school at the age of 13 and later went on to read Proust and Finnegans Wake and I keep expecting to meet an enthusiastic school leaver on the train, the type of person who only ever reads something because it is marvellous (and so hated school). Unfortunately the enthusiastic school leavers are all minding their own business.

Helen DeWitt

There is a strange taboo in our society against ending something merely because it is not pleasant— life, love, a conversation, you name it, the etiquette is that you must begin in ignorance & persevere in the face of knowledge, & though I naturally believe that this is profoundly wrong it's not nice to go around constantly offending people.

Helen DeWitt

There are people who think contraception is immoral because the object of copulation is procreation. In a similar way there are people who think the only reason to read a book is to write a book...

Helen DeWitt