Quotes About Literature

Only two classes of books are of universal appeal. The very best and the very worst.

Open the book to page ninety-nine and read, and the quality of the whole will be revealed to you.

A fervent young admirer exclaimed: "By Jove, the Good Soldier is the finest novel in the English language!" whereupon my friend John Rodker, who has always had a properly tempered admiration for my work, remarked in his clear, slow drawl: "Ah, yes. It is, but you have left out a word. It is the finest French novel in the English language!"

Seit damals benutze ich das Lesen als Mittel, die Zeit zum Verschwinden zu bringen, und das Schreiben als Mittel, sie festzuhalten.

Non, Céline n'est pas une marque de chaussures. C'est un écrivain français. Le héros de son plus célèbre roman s'appelle Bardamu et il fait le tour de la planète à la recherche d'un coupable. Il traverse la guerre, la misère, la maladie, il va en Afrique, en Amérique, et il ne trouve jamais le responsable de notre désolation. Le livre est sorti en 1932 et cinq ans plus tard, Céline se trouvait un bouc émissaire : les juifs.

cambered forehead of a virgin and who had eyes

The past but lives in written words: a thousand ages were blank if books had not evoked their ghosts, and kept the pale unbodied shades to warn us from fleshless lips.

"Tell me what you read and I'll tell you who you are" is true enough, but I'd know you better if you told me what you reread.

The glorification of culture in all its manifestations was such that Vienna was probably the only city in the world where fathers rejoiced when their sons decided to devote their lives to music or literature.

Ce n'est pas la peine d'avoir du talent à la cinquième ligne si le lecteur ne dépasse pas la troisième.

She dreamed of a world where books did not rot or give way to green blot, where words and ideas were not things you were despised for treasuring.

He was bellowing a great many words that were new to Mosca and sounded quite interesting. She memorized them for future use.

You read too much, Mr. Kirk," Weigand told him. "Such men get foolish ideas.

The best decoration in the world is a room full of books.

The best decoration in the world is a roomful of books.

We talk out of both corners of our mouth at once. We say we are a Christian nation, but much of our literature, our social practices, our deep interests are not Christian at all. They are totally secular.

Satan] has hundreds of agents writing pornographic literature and producing sex movies to pollute [the mind]. He has intellectuals in high positions teaching a hedonistic and permissive philosophy . . .They lack an anchor for their real self.

In the face of legalized pornography, the conscience of America seems to be paralyzed. More serious than our fakery in art, literature, and pictures is the collapse of our moral standards and the blunting of our capacity as a nation for righteous indignation.

Those who read the Scriptures as magnificent literature, breath-taking poetry, or history and overlook the story of salvation miss the Bible's real meaning and message.

More than art, more than literature, music is universally accessible.

That's the trouble with you readers. You know all the plots.

The Lost Weekend was the only book, out of five books, that I wrote sober, without stimulus or sedative.

We don't have to have easy moralizing reactions to characters in literature.

That winter he was invited to give a reading at the University of Massachusetts (Boston), but not a single person showed up. He sat in the silent lecture hall while his two sponsors gazed at their watches; finally Yates suggested they adjourn to a bar. He didn't seem particularly surprised.