Quotes About Literature

All books are merely delayed dust.

Her grandfather's books [...] opened before Ada, a world whose colours were so dazzling that reality paled in comparison and faded away. Boris Godunov, Satan, Athalia, King Lear: they all spoke words charged with meaning; every syllable was inexpressively precious

Even if he hadn't given it to me, you don't throw away another person's books. If I want to read something, I want to read it.

Even if readers claim that they 'take it all with a grain of salt', they do not really. They yearn to believe, and they believe, because believing is easier than disbelieving, and because anything which is written down is likely to be 'true in a way'.

I was not, except in some very broken-down sense of that ambiguous term, a love child. I was a word child.

Literature must always represent a battle between real people and images'.

Anyway people never fall in love suddenly like that except in novels.

Prose literature can reveal an aspect of the world which no other art can reveal … and in the case of the novel, the most important thing to be thus revealed, not necessarily the only thing, but incomparably the most important thing, is that other people exist.

Of course she had read this work many times before, but there were certain parts to which she passionately returned: so cool, so elegant, so beautiful, so terrible. As she read tears began to stream down her face.

I suspect the study of English literature is doing you no good, it's full of all sorts of romantic high-flown nonsense. You've been reading Shelley. I plead guilty to that crime.

At Cambridge I took minor (John major) part in a Virginia Woolf centenary conference. As I hadn't read any VW since school (possibly college) days, I felt bound to reread at least all the novels. It's super to wake up now in the morning and realise I don't have to read a Virginia Woolf novel today. I am prepared to admire some of the stuff but do not like either it or her

He did not read. This continued to amaze Ludens who could not imagine existence without reading.

enjoying literature as those alone enjoy it who have little else to enjoy.

The book is quite serious and quite funny. (Most novels are.)

I've almost finished The Republic. I find Plato at times a vile casuist, and almost always a reactionary. But he does write exquisite Greek.

Civilization is built by the artist, by the literary exponent, by the ability to generate beauty and music and new methods of expression.

Analysing novels meant ripping oot their soul and it destroyed my enjoyment of them. Ah couldnae allow masel tae be trained tae thing that way. Only by refusing tae study literature was ah able tae maintain ma passion for it.

Then whit? - Git a job. Or git oan a scheme. - No gaunnae stey oan n take Highers? - Naw. - Ye should. You could go tae University. - Whit fir? Geoff had to think for a while. He had recently graduated with a degree in English Literature and was on the dole. So were most of his fellow graduates. - It's a good social life, he said.

Analisar um romance significava destruir sua alma, e isso tava arruinando o prazer que eles me davam. Eu não podia me submeter a um treinamento pra pensar daquela maneira. Eu precisava me recusar a estudar literatura pra conseguir preservar minha paixão por ela.

He had recently graduated with a degree in English Literature and was on the dole. So were most of his fellow graduates.

Sa svakim novim jezikom ?ovek dobija nov život; jer ako znamo jezik jedne strane zemlje, možemo da upoznamo njenu književnost, njeno ponašanje i obi?aje...

Toat? marea literatur? are un caracter universal. Altfel piere.

Jokes of the proper kind, properly told, can do more to enlighten questions of politics, philosophy, and literature than any number of dull arguments.

Any book worth banning is a book worth reading.