Favorite Book Genre(s):

Epics

Philosophy

Plays

Least Favorite Book Genre(s):

Fantasy

Five Favorite Books of all Time:

The Iliad, by Homer

The Odyssey, by Homer

Candide, by Voltaire

On the Road, by Jack Kerouac

Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead, by Tom Stoppard

Three Least Favorite Books of all Time:

Dune, by Frank Herbert

Wild Animus, by Rich Shapero

Timbuktu, by Paul Auster

Favorite Author(s):

Euripides

Alexandre Dumas

Voltaire

James Joyce

Tennessee Williams

Favorite Literary Quote:

“Generations of men are like the leaves; in winter, winds blow them down to earth, but then, when spring comes again, the budding wood grows more. And so with men: one generation grows, and another dies away.” – Homer, The Iliad

” ”Do you believe that men have always massacred each other as they do today, that they have always been liars, cheats, traitors, ingrates, brigands, idiots, thieves, scoundrels, gluttons, drunkards, misers, envious, ambitious, bloody-minded, calumniators, debauchees, fanatics, hypocrites, and fools?’ ‘Do you believe,’ said Martin, ‘that hawks have always eaten pigeons when they have found them?’ “  – Voltaire, Candide

“We all live in a house on fire, no fire department to call; no way out, just the upstairs window to look out of while the fire burns the house down with us trapped, locked in it.” – Tennessee Williams, The Milk Train Doesn’t Stop Here Anymore

Coffee or Tea:

Tea.

Hobbies:

I don’t really know, I’ve never thought much about what I’m actually doing.  I suppose if pressed they’d be: reading, writing, and collecting travel points that I rarely get to use.

If you could interview any author, living or dead, who would it be and why?

Thomas Malory, because his long, boring compilation of long, boring Arthur tales made an entire six-month period of my life longer and more boring than it ever should have been.

A Lil’ Something Extra:

I didn’t include it as my favorite quote because it actually has a more profound effect on me than even that, but I’ve always found the following excerpt from Hugo’s Les Misérables to be extremely moving:

Do you hear the people sing / Lost in the valley of the night? / It is the music of a people / Who are climbing to the light. / For the wretched of the Earth / There is a flame that never dies. / Even the darkest night will end / And the sun will rise.