Literature Quotes

Mistakes are the only universal form of originality.

Just say the lines and don't trip over the furniture.

There are strings in the human heart that had better not be vibrated.

We shall be better prepared for the future if we see how terrible, how doomed the present is.

True nostalgia is an ephemeral composition of disjointed memories.

The narrative was too constricted; it was like a fetus strangling on its own umbilical cord.

Preserving tradition has become a nice hobby, like stamp collecting.

If you interviewed 1,000 politicians and asked about whether the media's "too soft" or "too hard," about 999 would say "too hard."

The last paragraph in which you tell what the story is about is almost always best left out.

It is a curious thing... that every creed promises a paradise which will be absolutely uninhabitable for anyone of civilized taste.

Think before you speak is criticism's motto; speak before you think, creation's.

In utter loneliness a writer tries to explain the inexplicable.

I had never believed in the sacred nature of literature. God had died when I was fourteen.

Life is so unlike theory.

I was guilty of judging capitalism by its operations and socialism by its hopes and aspirations; capitalism by its works and socialism by its literature.

In the fight between you and the world, back the world.

I think literature is best when it's voicing what we would prefer not to talk about.

Ideas are like pizza dough, made to be tossed around.

This is the worst President ever. He [George W. Bush] is the worst President in all of American history.

The really amazing part, to me, was when Florida made it into the Final Four, the Democrats didn't demand a recount.

The young are generally full of revolt, and are often pretty revolting about it.

The advantage of literature over life is that its characters are clearly defined, and act consistently.

Almost any poem has to be read twice, first for strangeness, second for clarity.

Texas was defined by its larger-than-life characters, particularly politicians.

Rose is a rose is a rose is a rose.

Anybody, providing he knows how to be amusing, has the right to talk about himself.

Polygamy: An endeavour to get more out of life than there is in it

Love, we say, is life; but love without hope and faith is agonizing death.

Iteration, like friction, is likely to generate heat instead of progress.

I thought I’d been condescended to as an Indian - that was nothing compared to the condescension for writing Y.A.

I must be doing something right. I've been around for a long time.

True eloquence consists in saying all that is necessary, and nothing but what is necessary.

Hobbies are apt to run away with us, you know; it doesn't do to be run away with. We must keep the reins.

No people come into possession of a culture without having paid a heavy price for it.

My works are Chinese literature, which is part of world literature. They show the life of Chinese people as well as the country's unique culture and folk customs.

It is too late to be studying Hebrew; it is more important to understand even the slang of today.

The worst possible turn can not be programmed. It is caused by coincidence.

Literature is my Utopia

From that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and there was one for every mood.

Language exists less to record the actual than to liberate the imagination.

If you cannot judge a book by its cover, surely we should not judge an author by one book alone?

A poet is the most unpoetical of anything in existence; because he has no identity he is continually informing and filling some other body.

The devil is compromise.

Ritual is necessary for us to know anything.

There is nothing insignificant in the world. It all depends on how one looks at it.

The man who seeks to please God is the man who people are pleased with. The man who seeks to please others won't satisfy anyone.

For many, immaturity is an ideal, not a defect.

Small presses take chances. Chances are at the heart of all the literature we later know as great.

Until we accept the fact that life itself is founded in mystery, we shall learn nothing.

If you're a Conservative, why aren't you behind conserving the land?