NPR’s Robert Siegel speaks with Ilan Stavans about his book, Quixote: The Novel and the World.
According to Ilan Stavans, quixotic is the only word coined from the title of a novel. Also, he says, “If a writer doesn’t do anything but give a new word to his language, and from there maybe to other languages, I think that writer redefines the world.”
Imagine a world sans “quixotic”… “dreamy,” “foolish,” “idealistic,” or “romantic” just don’t cut it.