Jay Parini

Quotes

• “Test-oriented teaching strikes me as anti-educational, a kind of unpleasant game that subverts the real aim of education...”
• “We are a nation of immigrants, a quilt of many colors, and we've managed over more than two centuries to create a way of...”
• “The whole Christmas story was probably a later addition to the gospel narratives, presented only by the authors of Matth...”
• “The United States is truly remarkable, a nation founded on a set of Enlightenment ideals so beautifully expressed by the...”
• “We should never forget that Americans continue to advocate for individual liberty, equality and self-governance. We ofte...”
• “Good and productive labor is valuable, and it doesn't mean you have to have a fancy job description. You don't have to b...”
• “I came to know Gore Vidal in the mid-1980s, when I was living in southern Italy, virtually a neighbour, and our friendsh...”
• “To bolster his right flank and attract women voters, John McCain had cynically opted for a running mate who was, by any ...”
• “Christmas is, for those who wish to follow the way of Jesus, an invitation to accept into our comfortable and safe lives...”
• “Colleges and classrooms should be havens of tranquility, places where thoughtful discussions occur, where students work ...”
• “Each year in early spring, during the season of Lent, which begins on Ash Wednesday and concludes on Easter, a plenitude...”
• “I have written about some truly great writers - John Steinbeck, Robert Frost, and William Faulkner. Faulkner and Frost w...”
• “In a country where Americans sense, quite genuinely, that their freedoms have been taken away by the government - as in ...”
• “Christmas is a story that has both religious and pagan origins, and to ignore its power is to ignore the power of myth -...”
• “My father was a Baptist preacher, and he used to read the King James Bible to me every single morning. He made me memori...”
• “The fact is, we need markers in life, whether we subscribe to a religion or not. And the major holidays, such as Christm...”
• “A proper respect for nature means that you can't pollute the air, poison the rivers and chop down the forests indiscrimi...”