Best 3 quotes of Alfred A. Knopf on MyQuotes

An economist is a man who states the obvious in terms of the incomprehensible.

Everything we know has its origin in questions. Questions, we might say, are the principal intellectual instruments available to human beings. Then how is it possible that no more than one in one hundred students has ever been exposed to an extended and systematic study of the art and science of question-asking? How come Alan Bloom did not mention this, or E. D. Hirsh, Jr., or so many others who have written books on how to improve our schools? Did they simply fail to notice that the principal intellectual instrument available to hu­man beings is not examined in school?

The writer who can't do his job looks to his editor to do it for him, though he won't dream of sharing his royalties with that editor.