Quotes About Literature

He once said that I ride words bareback.

The older I've got the less I find myself going back and re-reading or really reading new fiction or poetry.

É com os escritores imaginários que eu aprendo o que quero fazer. Por exemplo, Stephen Dedalus ou Nick Adams. Leio suas vidas como um modo de entender do que se trata. Não tenho interesse em me inspirar nos escritores "reais". O desprezo de Dedalus pela família, pela religião e pela pátria será o meu. Silêncio, exílio e astúcia.

Obviamente me siento mucho más cerca de John Berger o de Calvino que de García Márquez.

Reading surrounds us, labels us, defines us.

as the descendants of the Normans finally amalgamated with the English natives, the Anglo-Saxon language reasserted itself; but in its poverty it had to borrow hundreds of French words (literary, intellectual, and cultural) before it could become the language of literature.

this development produced what is called Middle English, known especially from Chaucer

of the true, humanistic spirit of the ancient Latin and Greek literatures and the fresh attention to literary

Dedicated to that amazing device, the Required Reading List, better even than artificial respiration for keeping dead authors alive.

The author apologizes for being unable to afford a ghost writer, which explains the lack of a distinctive prose style.

Almost nothing is known about Homer, which explains why so much has been written about him.

you would do well to turn from Chapter XXXVI to Chapter CXXXIII without further delay, thus saving nearly a hundred chapters without anybody's knowing the difference if you keep quiet. After all, Ahab isn't the only one entitled to be a skipper.

You were starting to sound a little like a Stephen King novel for a while there

Misinterpretations of Revelation often begin by misconceiving the kind of book it is.

Literature offered a safe circumscribed outlet for sadness.

A storyteller, a displaced poet, will absorb reading differently.

Reading is a gift. It's something you can do almost anytime and anywhere. It can be a tremendous way to learn, relax, and even escape. So, enough about the virtues of reading. Time to read on.

In 1830, the writer Charles Augustin Saint-Beuve (1804–69) fought one of the owners of Le Globe in heavy rain; Saint-Beuve held an umbrella throughout the duel, claiming that he did not mind dying but he would not get wet.

Two poets, Nikolai Gumilyov and Maximilian Voloshin, fought a duel over a non-existent woman.

It's not Jane Austen, it's not Henry James. But this writer, or writers, well, they're pretty damn good too.

Most writers can write books faster than publishers can write checks!" ~ Richard Curtis ~

Most writers can write books faster than publishers can write checks!

The Bible should be taught, but emphatically not as reality. It is fiction, myth, poetry, anything but reality. As such it needs to be taught because it underlies so much of our literature and our culture.

The God of the Old testament is arguably the most unpleasant character in all fiction...