Quotes from Charles E. Bressler

by embracing literary theory, we learn about literature, but more important we are also taught tolerance for other people's beliefs. By rejecting or ignoring theory, we are in danger of canonizing ourselves as literary saints who possess divine knowledge and who can, therefore, supply the one and only correct interpretation for a given text.

All writers misspeak, revealing not what they thought they said, but almost what they were afraid to say.