4,370 Quotes About Literature

I suppose what one wants really is ideal company and books are ideal company.

There is nothing political about American literature.

All art is either great - or someone else's fantasy.

Yes, I read. I have that absurd habit. I like beautiful poems, moving poetry, and all the beyond of that poetry. I am extraordinarily sensitive to those poor, marvelous words left in our dark night by a few men I never knew.

If I had anything meaningful to say I wouldn’t have to write it as poetry.

The exercise of imagination is dangerous to those who profit from the way things are because it has the power to show that the way things are is not permanent, not universal, not necessary. Having that real though limited power to put established institutions into question, imaginative literature has also the responsibility of power. The storyteller is the truthteller.

I believe in fiction and the power of stories because that way we speak in tongues. We are not silenced. All of us, when in deep trauma, find we hesitate, we stammer; there are long pauses in our speech. The thing is stuck. We get our language back through the language of others. We can turn to the poem. We can open the book. Somebody has been there for us and deep-dived the words.

Books and movies, they are not mere entertainment. They sustain me and help me cope with my real life.

Take my books away, and I should be desperate!