LA might have yet to crack the top ten (or even top twenty) when it comes to ranking America’s most literate cities, but given the crowds that pour into USC for the panels, authors, signings, booths, and revelry that make up the LA Times Festival of Books each year, I can say without doubt, we have no lack of book lovers in this town. So just in case you missed it, or maybe even have never been, here’s a peek at what the Bookfest is all about:
“What I would say to you is, you need to think about what sort of family enjoys reading about terrible things happening to children over and over again, and I think you should seriously consider running away from home.” – Daniel Handler (aka Lemony Snicket)
“Your question is, if we fix the world and everything’s calm, how will my work look? Wow. Um, gosh. Well, certainly, if we fix the world and I lack for inspiration, that’s totally worth it. There’s no trouble and strife, but the bad news is that I have to make an honest living – that seems a totally reasonable exchange to me. Well, I think- To me, one of the troubles of thinking about literature, and one of the troubles of thinking about the world, is the speech Orsen Wells made in The Third Man, where he says: Switzerland had nothing but peace and prosperity, and Italy had nothing but murder and treachery, and Italy gave us the Renaissance, and Switzerland gave us the cuckoo clock.” – Daniel Handler
“I think racism is kinda funny. It’s funny in two ways – funny because the racist ideas themselves are so ridiculous and over the top, and funny because we think they’re true.” – Gene Luen Yang
“There are broken soldiers from these wars. They won’t always be broken. They won’t all be broken.” – David Finkel
“No matter what faith tradition you belong to, holiness is always connected to humility.” – Gene Luen Yang
“I’m not going to target an audience. I’m going to write a good book and hope everybody likes it.” – Ridley Pearson
WIsh we could do it all over again… You know…. with more snacks.