No one yet has managed to be post-Shakespearean.

— Harold Bloom

One mark of originality that can win canonical status for a literary work is strangeness that we either never altogether assimilate, or that becomes such a given that we are blinded to its idiosyncrasies.

— Harold Bloom

One reads for oneself and for strangers.

— Harold Bloom

Originality must compound with inheritance.

— Harold Bloom

Persuasion is a strong but subdued outrider.

— Harold Bloom

Pragmatically, aesthetic value can be recognized or experienced, but it cannot be conveyed to those who are incapable of grasping its sensations and perceptions. To quarrel on its behalf is always a blunder.

— Harold Bloom

Reading the very best writers—let us say Homer, Dante, Shakespeare, Tolstoy—is not going to make us better citizens. Art is perfectly useless, according to the sublime Oscar Wilde, who was right about everything. He also told us that all bad poetry is sincere. Had I the power to do so, I would command that these words be engraved above every gate at every university, so that each student might ponder the splendor of the insight.

— Harold Bloom

Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.

— Harold Bloom

Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you, because it sat least in my experience, the most healing of pleasures.

— Harold Bloom

Reviewing bad books is bad for the character – WH Auden

— Harold Bloom