Literature Quotes

Browse through our collection of quotes tagged with Literature.

I know that I am a small, weak man, but I have amassed a lar

I know that I am a small, weak man, but I have amassed a large library; I dream of dangerous places.

Terry Pratchett

Reading Literature

The true reader reads every work seriously in the sense that

The true reader reads every work seriously in the sense that he reads it whole-heartedly, makes himself as receptive as he can. But for that very reason he cannot possibly read every work solemly or gravely. For he will read 'in the same spirit that the author writ.'... He will never commit the error of trying to munch whipped cream as if it were venison.

Humor Funny Books Reading Criticism Literature Readers Reading Books Academics Interpretation

Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that

Music expresses that which cannot be put into words and that which cannot remain silent

Music Poetry Literature

In literature the ambition of the novice is to acquire the l

In literature the ambition of the novice is to acquire the literary language; the struggle of the adept is to get rid of it.

George Bernard Shaw

Writing Literature

There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, t

There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write

Literature

No sooner have you feasted on beauty with your eyes than you

No sooner have you feasted on beauty with your eyes than your mind tells you that beauty is vain and beauty passes

Beauty Inspiration Literature Virginia Woolf Christiana Rossetti Vain Victorian Literature

I have tried to write about politics in an allusive manner t

I have tried to write about politics in an allusive manner that draws upon other interests and to approach literature and criticism without ignoring the political dimension. Even if I have failed in this synthesis, I have found the attempt worth making.

Christopher Hitchens

Politics Literature Literary Criticism

You're like, both like, Alexander the Great.'We can't both b

You're like, both like, Alexander the Great.'We can't both be Alexander.'Well sometimes I think you're two side of the same coin, and I'm the metal in between.

Orson Scott Card

Books Literature

Literature is the only art in which the audience performs th

Literature is the only art in which the audience performs the score.

Literature

The Postmodernists' tyranny wears people down by boredom and

The Postmodernists' tyranny wears people down by boredom and semi-literate prose.

Christopher Hitchens

Humor Funny Literature Postmodernism

My main reason for adopting literature as a profession was t

My main reason for adopting literature as a profession was that, as the author is never seen by his clients, he need not dress respectably.

George Bernard Shaw

Literature

But I hate to hear you talking so like a fine gentleman, and

But I hate to hear you talking so like a fine gentleman, and as if women were all fine ladies, instead of rational creatures. We none of us expect to be in smooth water all our days.

Romance Literature Classics

And what is literature but an insider's newsletter about aff

And what is literature but an insider's newsletter about affairs relating to molecules, of no importance to anything in the Universe but a few molecules who have a disease called 'thought'.

Literature

Cruel with guilt, and daring with despair, the midnight murd

Cruel with guilt, and daring with despair, the midnight murderer bursts the faithless bar; invades the sacred hour of silent rest and leaves, unseen, a dagger in your breast.

Poetry Books Literature

I think it can be tremendously refreshing if a creator of li

I think it can be tremendously refreshing if a creator of literature has something on his mind other than the history of literature so far. Literature should not disappear up its own asshole, so to speak.

Writing Literature

To give an accurate description of what has never occurred i

To give an accurate description of what has never occurred is not merely the proper occupation of the historian, but the inalienable privilege of any man of parts and culture.

Culture Literature Historians

While an author is yet living we estimate his powers by his

While an author is yet living we estimate his powers by his worst performance, and when he is dead we rate them by his best.

Funny Humour Writing Literature

Men think they think upon the great political questions, and

Men think they think upon the great political questions, and they do; but they think with their party, not independently; they read its literature, but not that of the other side

Men Literature

In great literature, I become a thousand different men but s

In great literature, I become a thousand different men but still remain myself.

Quote Literature C S Lewis

The enduring rapture with magic and fable has always struck

The enduring rapture with magic and fable has always struck me as latently childish and somehow sexless (and thus also related to childlessness).

Christopher Hitchens

Sex Magic Literature Sexuality Literary Criticism Childishness Childlessness Fable Fantasy Literature