Quotes About Literature

I'd love to have a 19th Century Russian book club where all the members had to act like the pretentious minor noblemen they were reading about.

Shakespeare said pretty well everything and what he left out, James Joyce, with a judge from meself, put in.

Well, well, Henry James is pretty good, though he is of the nineteenth century, and that glaringly.

That's always been part of my goal - to show the dark side of women. Men write about bad men all the time, and they're called antiheroes.

Honestly, I would never say, 'Oh, I've decided not to read 'The Left Hand of Darkness' because I've seen 'Blade Runner.' I've decided not to read 'Neuromancer' because I've seen 'Blade Runner.''

You have to be careful not to use anything too colloquial or you date the book.

I wouldn't reread Sartre today. Compared to everything I've read since, his fiction seems dated and has lost much of its value.

I'm a big fan of David Sedaris; I love all his books and have them all on audio and e-reader, in addition to hard copies.

On the whole, I rather disapprove of cookbooks, except for the literary ones, like Elizabeth David's.

Sloane Crosley and David Sedaris are two of my favorite writers; they're the kind of writers who make you feel like, 'I can do this. I want to do this.'

There's nothing like taking Proust to the beach and daydreaming along to it.

A lot of my literature deals with these people who are somehow magnetic because they have that ability to step over lines.

When I wrote about Mary Wollstonecraft, I found that here she was, in the late 18th century, going to work for the 'Analytical Review.' What was the 'Analytical Review?' It was a magazine that dealt with politics and literature.

I grew up reading Proust all my life, and he's very dear to me.

I said to Ruth Rendell, 'When you've written as many books as you have, it's easier.' She said, 'No dear, it gets harder'.

I have known Farley Mowat all of my life, from reading his books as a child to becoming a close friend of his over the last three decades.

I don't feel I've had a decent critic ever on the East coast.

Usually I decide on what it is I'm writing next by the books I'm reading.

I still can't decide which is more fun - reading or writing.

Being an author of banned books is cool, I've decided.

I didn't choose literature. Literature chose me. There was no decision on my side.

I've never seen an 'English' books section in, well, an English bookshop, but in Scotland, most bookshops have a set of shelves dedicated to Scottish authors.

I have this deep love for authors. I think that we don't do enough to encourage love of words and love of books.

A writer has to fully defend his rights and his own worth.