Quotes About Literature

I'm not very good at creating worlds. I prefer to write about the world as it is.

If something is well-written, it has a chance to be good and if it's not well-written, it will not be good. It could even become popular, but it won't be good.

We can never know that a piece of writing is bad unless we have begun by trying to read it as if it was very good and ended by discovering that we were paying the author an undeserved compliment.

a good book can make an almost impossible existence, liveable ( from 'the luck of the word' )

If it is a distinction to have written a good book, it is also a disgrace to have written a bad one.

The core of literature is the idea of tragedy... You don't really learn much from the good things that happen to you.

I prefer a story that has the good sense to stay on the page where it belongs. - Elinor

One paradox of professional writing is that books written solely for money and/or acclaim will almost never be good enough to garner either.

They defy gravity, as good books should.

I still believe in stories. I still forget myself when I am in the middle of a good book. Books are for me, it must be said, the most important thing.

A good book is a kind of paper club, serving to rouse the slumbrous and to silence the obtuse.

The very good thing about MFA programs is their democratizing. They bring a lot of different people to the table.

A good book is a good book, and there are a lot of different ways to approach writing or reading one.

It is a sure evidence of a good book if it pleases us more and more as we grow older.

You don't expect me to know what to say about a play when I don't know who the author is, do you? . . . If it's by a good author, it's a good play, naturally. That stands to reason.

People must not be forced to adopt me as their favourite author, even for their own good.

We do not so much want books for good people, as books which will make bad ones better.

All my good reading, you might say, was done in the toilet. There are passages in Ulysses which can be read only in the toilet - if one wants to extract the full flavor of their content.

The secret of all good writing is sound judgment.

I'll read anything. In fact, I'll read while I'm doing other things, which is not a good idea.

Ian McEwan is a very good writer; the first half of Atonement alone would ensure him a lasting place in English letters.

I really dislike it when people talk about "experimental," because any good writer is experimental.

Good God! This man should be writing dime novels.

Let us hope that good authors who are bad Christians will find salvation through the books they write.