Quotes About Literature

For 'The Lobster Kings,' I listened to a lot of Johnny Cash. And it makes its way into the book.

If I've ever regretted anything, it was putting all my eggs in one basket, holing up and kneeling at the altar of literature, instead of going out and at least reviewing, running around and trying to write for magazines. That would've been the intelligent thing to do, but I didn't, and that was because of fanaticism.

He knew everything about literature except how to enjoy it.

I never liked Hans Christian Andersen because I knew he was always getting at me.

When I read 'Room,' I absolutely loved it, and I thought I knew how to make it.

I did projects on Champlain coming up the St. Lawrence River and on Henry Hudson cast adrift in the bay that now bears his name. And I read dozens of historical novels: Rosemary Sutcliff on Roman Britain and G. A. Henty on British heroes, though my all-time favourite was Ronald Welch's 'Knight Crusader.'

The first book that really knocked me out was the 'Brothers Karamazov.' I read it when I was a senior in high school.

It is good to be well connected with English language, literature and history, but the knowledge of our culture and roots is equally important.

Bobby Fischer has an enormous knowledge of chess and his familiarity with the chess literature of the USSR is immense.

When you read the Koran, you give up. At least the Bible is very beautiful because Jews have an extraordinary literary talent.

My sister bought me the Koran in 1990. I always thought the stories in it were magical.

I used to joke that I came to England - not to the U.S. where most Koreans go - because I like Arthur Conan Doyle and Agatha Christie.

Any writer my age almost can't get away from being influenced by Kurt Vonnegut, partially because of his simple, clear way of stating things. To read Vonnegut is to learn how to use economy words.

Kurt Vonnegut and I - it's not an exaggeration to say we were best friends. And I grew up just idolizing him.

I was brought up, as a lot of kids are, on 'Aesop's Fables,' 'Brothers Grimm,' 'La Fontaine,' all those sorts of things. Hans Christian Andersen is a hero of mine.

With the first novel, I was concerned I would be pigeon-holed as an Asian-American writer, and the book would be labeled for Asian-Americans only.

Labeling is not the best way to get young people to deeply engage in reading.

If you haven't read you don't have the voice. The lack of voice eliminates experience.

Non che non creda in Dio. Ci credo. Solo non sono sicura di credere nel Paradiso, almeno non quanto credo nella biblioteca pubblica.

Every author these days is an award-winning novelist. Why? Because they set up an award contest and they dub themselves the winner.

Not only were we naked, crazed, and starving (and far from our warm little homes); we were without any good books as well.

A literary expert friend once told me that the way to teach your child to love and respect reading is not to read to them, but rather to refuse to allow yourself to be interrupted while you're reading.

Holy borrowing bibliophile, let's book!

I pinch the sentence's butt with my other hand and tug it from my skin like a leech, smack it back on the page and clamp the book shut. Part of it's hanging out, and it waves jerkily at me with what appears to be blatant hostility. I stick the book back on the upside-down shelf over my head, pissed off sentence first, counting on the gluey base to hold it in. All I need is a badly mangled, irate sentence stalking me.