4,370 Quotes About Literature

He who does not know how to look back at where he came from will never get to his destination.

Literature is always personal, always one man's vision of the world, one man's experience, and it can only be popular when men are ready to welcome the visions of others.

Reality is not an inspiration for literature. At its best, literature is an inspiration for reality.

Does such a thing as "the fatal flaw," that showy dark crack running down the middle of a life, exist outside literature?

A word aptly uttered or written cannot be cut away by an axe.

When I read Shakespeare I am struck with wonder that such trivial people should muse and thunder in such lovely language.

My definition of good literature is that which can be read by an educated reader, and reread with increased pleasure.

A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions (of which its author had quite probably never heard). It is classic because of a certain eternal and irrepressible freshness.

Pull a thread here and you’ll find it’s attached to the rest of the world.