4,370 Quotes About Literature

Slang surely, as it is called, comes of, and breathes of the personal

It is the duty of every generation of writers and artists to find fresh ways of expressing the habitual circumstances of the human condition. To serve up the lukewarm remains of yesterdays dinner is easy, profitable and popular, (for a while). It is also wrong.

One gets wise by meeting people and meeting people through their literature.

Amar las palabras, tener interés en lo que se escribe, creer en el poder de los libros, esto supera a todo lo demás, y a su lado la vida de uno se queda muy pequeña.

В книгах все объясняется, в жизни - нет. Я не удивляюсь тому, что многие предпочитают книги. Книги придают смысл жизни. Но проблема в том, что жизнь, которой они придают смысл, - это жизнь других людей, и никогда не твоя.

Oamenii nu sunt perfecți. Sunt ființe complicate, greu de explicat în vorbe înțelepte sau în citate scolastice.

Glasgow is a magnificent city,” said McAlpin. “Why do we hardly ever notice that?” “Because nobody imagines living here…think of Florence, Paris, London, New York. Nobody visiting them for the first time is a stranger because he’s already visited them in paintings, novels, history books and films. But if a city hasn’t been used by an artist not even the inhabitants live there imaginatively.

Words, words were truly alive on the tongue, in the head, warm, beating, frantic, winged; music and blood.

If he had stayed in Slovenia, and Slovenia had stayed Communist, Žižek would not have been the nuisance he has since become. Indeed, if there were no greater reason to regret the collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe, the release of Žižek on to the world of Western scholarship would perhaps already be a sufficient one.