Literature Quotes
American literature has never been content to be just one among the many literatures of the Western World. It has always aspired to be the literature not only of a new continent but of a New World.
We should not see print and electronic literature as in competition, but rather in conversation. The more voices that join in, the richer the dialogue is likely to be.
Be a terror to the butchers, that they may be fair in their weight; and keep hucksters and fraudulent dealers in awe, for the same reason.
My fortune somewhat resembled that of a person who should entertain an idea of committing suicide, and, altogether beyond his hopes, meet with the good hap to be murdered.
I think that the best literature has a core that you can't lock to a time or place but that can generate lots of meanings and translations.
About no subject is there less philosophizing than about philosophy.
It is simply not part of my culture to preserve notes. I have never heard of a writer preserving his early drafts.
St. Paul's arose like some huge mountain above the enormous mass of smaller buildings.
Again, both literature and philosophy work by appealing to certain reigning idols.
When evil acts in the world it always manages to find instruments who believe that what they do is not evil but honorable.
Even if you only want to write science fiction, you should also read mysteries, poetry, mainstream literature, history, biography, philosophy, and science.
The surest method of being incomprehensible or, moreover, to be misunderstood is to use words in their original sense; especially words from the ancient languages.
Since philosophy now criticizes everything it comes across, a critique of philosophy would be nothing less than a just reprisal.
I want to be distinguished from the rest; to tell the truth, a friend to all mankind is not a friend for me.
To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable privilege of any man of parts and culture.
Seaward ho! Hang the treasure! It's the glory of the sea that has turned my head.
The man who writes about himself and his own time is the only man who writes about all people and about all time.
Let those who want to save the world if you can get to see it clear and as a whole. Then any part you make will represent the whole if it's made truly. The thing to do is work and learn to make it.
No one writes anything worth writing, unless he writes entirely for the sake of his subject.
If emptiness is empty, how can something be borne or awaken from it?
The most effective way of destroying art is the canonization of one given form. And one philosophy.
Keep reminding yourself that literature is one of the saddest roads that leads to everything.
A great memory does not make a mind, any more than a dictionary is a piece of literature.
A hidden spark of the dream sleeps In the forest and waits In the celestial spheres of the brain.
Life is not a PG feel-good movie. Real life often ends badly. Literature tries to document this reality, while showing us it is still possible for us to endure nobly.
What does infinity mean to you? Are you not infinity and yourself?
From whichever side I start, I think I am in an old place where others have been before me.
Those expressions are omitted which cannot with propriety be read aloud in the family.
Books have that strange quality, that being of the frailest and tenderest matter, they outlast brass, iron and marble.
Is it possible to write a poem or are these words just screams of outlaws exiled to the desert?
Beyond all vanities, fights, and desires, omnipotent silence lies.
I was raised among books, making invisible friends in pages that seemed cast from dust and whose smell I carry on my hands to this day.
Trying too hard to be too good, even when trying to be bad, is too good for the bad, too bad for the good.
Whatever you are looking for is also looking for you. You see, don't only look. Be available and ready when it shows up
In great literature, I become a thousand different men but still remain myself.
