Quotes about Literature

The author of the Iliad is either Homer or, if not Homer, somebody else of the same name.

Every man's memory is his private literature.

Who ever converses among old books will be hard to please among the new.

Poems, novels - these things belong to the nation, to the culture, and the people.

Anyone who holds a pen these days thinks he or she is a poet.

I know I'm not a wordsmith. And I don't write poetry. Sometimes I think I should, because it's really helpful. But I always wanted to write novels.

You can examine the whole 19th century from the point of view of who would have maxed out their credit cards. Emma Bovary would have maxed hers out. No question. Mr. Scrooge would not have. He would have snipped his up.

I think the best fiction is a form of psychological suspense, even though I don't really write in that idiom.

The spiritual man in mythology, in literature and in the great world religions has an excess of life, he knows he has it, makes no apology for it, and finally recognizes that he does not even need to protect or guard it. It is not for him. It is for others. His life is not his own. His life is not about him. It is about God.

Those who walk the full and entire journey are considered "called" or "chosen" in the Bible, perhaps "fated" or "destined" in world mythology and literature, but always they are the ones who have heard some deep invitation to "something more," and set out to find it by both grace and daring.

Just the knowledge that a good book is waiting one at the end of a long day makes that day happier.

A writer's tragedy: to know all the words and nothing else.