Lee Siegel

The Web critic relies on his or her readers for attentiveness and approval.

I react very badly when mediocrity throws a tantrum of entitlement.

Anonymity is a universal convention of the blogosphere, and the wicked expedience is that you can speak without consequences.

Recently, I was in Bernalda, my dad's ancestral home town in Italy. He has just refurbished a palazzo and turned it into a hotel, so we had my sister's wedding there. It was beautiful.

Most detective story readers are an educated audience and know there are only a certain number of plots. The interest lies in what the writer does with them.

Well, I actually wrote her a letter a couple of days ago congratulating her. The tone I tried to convey in the letter is, look, you are a part of a great American historical process.