Quotes About Literature

If you love the language, the greatest thing you can do to ensure its survival is not to complain about bad usage but to pass your enthusiasm to a child. Find a child and read to it often the things you admire, not being afraid to read the classics.

He always wrote on the flyleaf of each new book the date and where he was, so I can follow him: reading Chesterton just after they were married in November 1929, Scottish poets the following spring.

ROBERT MASELLO is the author of many previous works of fiction and nonfiction, most recently the novels Blood and Ice and The Medusa Amulet. A native of Evanston, Illinois, he studied writing under the novelists Robert Stone and Geoffrey Wolff at Princeton, and has since taught and lectured at many leading universities. For six years, he was the visiting lecturer in literature at Claremont McKenna College. He now lives and works in Santa Monica,

magazine, People, Newsday, and the Washington Post. A long-standing member of the Writers Guild of America, he has taught and lectured at colleges and universities nationwide, including the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He also served as visiting lecturer in literature at Claremont McKenna College for

nationwide, including the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism. He also served as visiting lecturer in literature at Claremont McKenna College for six years. A native of Evanston, Illinois, Masello

Until lately the West has regarded it as self-evident that the road to education lay through great books. No man was educated unless he was acquainted with the masterpieces of his tradition. There never was very much doubt in anybody's mind about which the masterpieces were. They were the books that had endured and that the common voice of mankind called the finest creations, in writing, of the Western mind.

I was, I remember, nineteen years old, wrote poems, still wore no proper collar, ran out in the rain and snow, always woke up early in the morning, read Lenau, considered an overcoat a superfluous item, received a monthly salary of one hundred twenty-five francs and didn't know what to do with all that money.

Às pessoas saudáveis faço o seguinte apelo: não teimem em ler apenas esses livros saudáveis, travem um conhecimento mais estreito, também, com a literatura dita doentia, que vos transmitirá, decerto, uma cultura edificante. As pessoas saudáveis deveriam sempre expor-se um pouco ao perigo. Senão, com mil raios, para que serve ser saudável? Simplesmente para, num determinado dia, morrer de boa saúde?

A quienes conservan el sano juicio les hago el siguiente llamamiento: no leáis siempre y de manera exclusiva esos libros sanos; acercaos un poquito a la llamada literatura enfermiza, de la que tal vez podáis sacar un consuelo vital. La gente sana debería arriesgarse siempre de una u otra manera. ¿Para qué demonios, si no, conservar el sano juicio? ¿Para morir un día saludablemente? Vaya un futuro desolador

Every book that has been printed is, after all, a grave for its author, isn't it?

Thank you very much," said I cold-bloodedly, left the book, which had been most absolutely widely distributed because it had unconditionally to have been read, as I chose, where it was, and softly withdrew, without wasting another word. "Uncultivated and ignorant man!" shouted the bookseller after me, for he was most justifiably and deeply vexed.

There are little books we read as if we're eating something delicious. We quickly forget them. After a certain amount of time, perhaps we recall them again. They're Like people we're capable of loving because they're not difficult.

Reading is pleasure and happiness to be alive or sadness to be alive and above all it's knowledge and questions.

Every book in the world is out there waiting to be read by me.

The gods are fugitive guests of literature.

ogni vero editore compone, senza saperlo o anche sapendolo, un unico libro formato da tutti i libri che pubblica

Mostrare la propria libreria è come far entrare un estraneo nell'intimità. È come raccontare dei propri flirt. Una cosa da evitare.

El lector verdadero está siempre leyendo un libro -o dos, o tres o diez- y la novedad llega como una molestia -a veces irritante, a veces agradable, a veces incluso deseada- en el seno de esa actividad ininterrumpida. Donde, no sin esfuerzo, deberá conquistar un espacio, si no cae antes de las manos del lector. Este, entonces, volverá felizmente a ese otro libro que estaba leyendo porque eso es precisamente lo que tenía ganas de hacer.

I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them.

Nothing is more dangerous to maidenly delicacy of speech than the run of a good library.

If I had my way books would not be written in English but in an exceedingly difficult secret language.... This plan would have the advantage of scaring off all amateur authors, retired politicians, country doctors...who would not have the patience to learn the secret language.

Nobody ever reads the same book twice.

Words are just farts from a lot of fools who have swallowed too many books.

Are you New World or Old?' 'Sounds like a novel by Henry James.' 'Never read him.' 'Don't. But that was his question and he plumped for the Old.