4,370 Quotes About Literature

Like a ravenous doga lumbering, slobbering Mastiff or St. Bernard,sloping up raw hamburger and eggs from its dishon the floor in the corner of the family kitchenlicking and slurping and lappingwanting more, always moreSome greasy HemingwaySome grainy SteinbeckSavory salad with lots of garlic,that's Vonnegut

[P]eople need to use their intelligence to evaluate what they find to be true and untrue in the Bible. This is how we need to live life generally. Everything we hear and see we need to evaluate—whether the inspiring writings of the Bible or the inspiring writings of Shakespeare, Dostoevsky, or George Eliot, of Ghandi, Desmond Tutu, or the Dalai Lama.

Who’s to say what a ‘literary life’ is? As long as you are writing often, and writing well, you don’t need to be hanging-out in libraries all the time. Nightclubs are great literary research centers. So is Ibiza!

The great thing about literature is that it's subjective. No two readers read the same book, because we all see the words through different eyes, filter the story through different life experiences.

She looked up out of her voice and saw the angel.…and the entire message had no words. The entire message will be only the beat and direction of time. Yes is Now.The angel who says, “It’s time.”“Is it time?” she asked. “Does it hurt?” He will have the most beautiful face she has ever seen.“Oh, babe.” The angel starts to cry. “You can’t imagine,” he said.

Language exists less to record the actual than to liberate the imagination.

This irritated or puzzled such students of literature and their professors as were accustomed to ‘serious’ courses replete with ‘trends ’ and ‘schools ’ and ‘myths ’ and ‘symbols ’ and ‘social comment ’ and something unspeakably spooky called ‘climate of thought.’ Actually these ‘serious’ courses were quite easy ones with the students required to know not the books but about the books.

Literature is about contemplation not speed-reading for plot or fact. I try to give the reader what I call the startling moment—to take them down to the heartbeat of a character. To open the moment out in all its richness.

What agenda does this universe have?What game is it I am oblivious to?