Great Throughts Treasury

This site is dedicated to the memory of Dr. Alan William Smolowe who gave birth to the creation of this database.

Mark Harris

American Novelist, Literary Biographer, Pop Culture Thinker and Educator

"We live in a spelling bee culture where the demand is factual accuracy and everybody overlooks the absence of art or meaning in what's said. Too many people sent letters to Nero telling him he was fingering his fiddle wrong. This passion for data is a way of avoiding coming to terms with things."

"May passion be the wind. That leads you through your days and may conviction keep you strong. Guide you on your way."

"From here on in, I rag nobody."

"The sky was just beginning to light up a little, the quiet time when all the air is clean and you can hear birds, even in the middle of New York City, the time of day you never see except by accident, and you always tell yourself, I must get up and appreciate this time of day once in awhile, and then you never do. Don't ask me why. "