On the Greek fiscal crisis

Letter from David Riley of Fitch to the FT: "it is surprising and unfortunate that so much effort appears to have been invested in circumventing a particular rating outcome. By far the most important and beneficial outcome for Greece and its creditors is securing a credible solution to the current crisis. In light of the market focus on a rating outcome...Fitch is guided by the spirit as well as the letter of the criteria. If it looks like a default we will rate it as a default."

Kermode on Shakespeare

...One of Kermode's most important points. The later Shakespearean technique has foregone the traditional routine academic rhetoric for a new and supple style that follows the movement of a mind....For Kermode, the new capacity to create a style that follows the process of thought, with all its hesitations and convolutions, begins with Richard II.

Spinoza on interpretation

It is one thing to understand the meaning of Scripture, and quite another to understand the actual truth.

NYRB on Buster Keaton

The logic of his first pictures, the two-reel pictures, resembles the logic of dreams. It was an alternate reality that freed him from narrative obligations - one thing simply followed another - and allowed him to pack a staggering quantity of life's particulars into each twenty-minute film......Keaton's dreams and dream-like camera effects seem to compound the stillness and inwardness of his deadpan character. They are not a break from reality but a truer form of it.

The genius of Buster Keaton

"What you have to do is create a character. Then the character just does his best, and there's your comedy. No begging."