Quotes about American Literature

At the age of 12 I won the school prize for Best English Essay. The prize was a copy of Somerset Maugham's 'Introduction To Modern English And American Literature.' To this day I keep it on the shelf between my collection of Forester's works and the little urn that contains my mother's ashes. Votes: 6

It is one of the paradoxes of American literature that our writers are forever looking back with love and nostalgia at lives they couldn't wait to leave. Votes: 5

[Mark] Twain is pointing at you. You, the reader of the book one hundred and thirty years ago and today. That is what has made it a great American novel and the most widely read book in American Literature around the world today. Votes: 5

American literature has always been immigrant. Votes: 4

There is nothing political about American literature. Votes: 4

As an undergraduate I majored in British and American literature at Rice University. Votes: 4

All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. Votes: 4

I've been as bad an influence on American literature as anyone I can think of. Votes: 4

I spent four years doing a doctorate in postmodern American literature. I can recognize it when I see it. Votes: 4

One of the great themes in American literature is the individual's confrontation with the vast open spaces of the continent. Votes: 4

Nothing could be more inappropriate to American literature than its English source since the Americans are not British in sensibility. Votes: 4

I like contemporary American literature and I like biographies and I like jazz and I like baseball and I like writers who write about the human condition and sci-fi is just something that I happened into. Votes: 4

I get up at an unholy hour in the morning my work day is completed by the time the sun rises. I have a slightly bad back which has made an enormous contribution to American literature. Votes: 4

American literature has never been content to be just one among the many literatures of the Western World. It has always aspired to be the literature not only of a new continent but of a New World. Votes: 4

American literature had always considered writing a very serious matter Votes: 3

The women of the South have brought into American literature a unique mixture of domesticity and grotesquerie. Votes: 3

Jerome Charyn is one of the most important writers in American literature and one of only three now writing whose work makes me truly happy to be a reader. Votes: 3

We must strike down the insidious lie that a book is the creation of an individual soul labouring in isolation. We must strike it down because it threatens the overall quality and breadth of American literature. Votes: 3

Modern American literature was born in protest, born in rebellion, born out of the sense of loss and indirection which was imposed upon the new generations out of the realization that the old formal culture-the "New England idea"-could no longer serve. Votes: 3

All I try to do is portray Indians as we are, in creative ways. With imagination and poetry. I think a lot of Native American literature is stuck in one idea: sort of spiritual, environmentalist Indians. And I want to portray everyday lives. I think by doing that, by portraying the ordinary lives of Indians, perhaps people learn something new. Votes: 3

It does not follow because many books are written by persons born in America that there exists an American literature. Books which imitate or represent the thoughts and life of Europe do not constitute an American literature. Before such can exist, an original idea must animate this nation and fresh currents of life must call into life fresh thoughts along the shore. Votes: 3

American literature had always considered writing a very serious matter. Votes: 1

The adolescent protagonist is one of the hallmarks of American literature. Votes: 1

I don't aspire at present to be king of the hill in American literature. Votes: 1

I have a slightly bad back, which has made an enormous contribution to American literature. Votes: 1

It would be hard to exaggerate Ernest Hemingway's influence over American literature, but his influence on our lives is probably larger still. Votes: 1

I finally returned to Iran in 1979, when I got my degree in English and American literature, and stayed for 18 years in the Islamic republic. Votes: 1

Not only are most of our citizens fathomlessly ignorant of the glories of American literature, a fast-growing percentage of our students are no longer taught much about any works of American art, be they novels, paintings, symphonies or ballets. Votes: 1

I look at western literature and especially North American literature, and I feel like it gets bogged down so much with all of that, with domestic stories and relationships and a woman dealing with the loss of her husband. Votes: 1

When I went to college, I majored in American literature, which was unusual then. But it meant that I was broadly exposed to nineteenth-century American literature. I became interested in the way that American writers used metaphoric language, starting with Emerson. Votes: 1

If American literature has a few heroes, Miller is one of them. He refused to name names at the McCarthy hearings, and his play 'The Crucible' analysed the hearings in the context of a previous American mass psychosis, the Salem witch trials. Votes: 1

The main differences between contemporary English and American literature is that the baleful pseudo-professionalism imparted by all those crap M.F.A. writing programs has yet to settle like a miasma of standardization on the English literary scene. But it's beginning to happen. Votes: 1

When I came to America, I was already a writer, already published in Bosnia. I was planning to go back, but I had no choice but to stay here after the civil war, so I enrolled at Northwestern in a master's program and studied American literature. Votes: 1

Some people might be surprised that 'Rambo's creator has a doctorate in American literature. One of my influences is Henry James, whose major theme is awareness. Whether I'm writing about military personnel, law enforcement, or De Quincey, the persistent theme is paying attention in a hostile world. Votes: 1

In the early 1970s in Atlanta, I attended what had formerly been an all-white school but had become a black school after integration and white flight. Perhaps because of this, the teachers created a curriculum that included a focus on African American literature and history year-round, not just in February. Votes: 1

I like European and South American literature, but mostly I read nonfiction. Votes: 0

There is something very romantic about the orphan figure in American literature. Votes: 0

Twentieth-century American poetry has been one of the glories of modern literature. Votes: 0

If you read Islamic creationist literature, it's pretty much lifted from American evangelical literature. Votes: 0

Our American professors like their literature clear and cold and pure and very dead. Votes: 0

All good American literature is always interested in people who are ambiguously heroic, like Gatsby. Votes: 0

I think American literature is in a tedious place, horrible place. I can't even engage with it. Votes: 0

If literature survives at all, it is as retreat for those who refuse to assimilate to American mass culture. Votes: 0

No, Margaret Atwood writes literature, whereas I write fiction. I'm from the American Midwest, so literature is beyond my abilities. Votes: 0

I think if German literature could survive the '40s and Russian literature could survive Sovietism, American literature can survive Google. Votes: 0

The American, who up to the present day, has evinced, in Literature, the largest brain with the largest heart, that man is Nathaniel Hawthorne. Votes: 0

For someone who made such an enormous contribution to American literature, Mark Twain has been the subject of many books but few major biographies. Votes: 0

A Pulitzer Prize is awaiting the journalist who can find an American who dies of hunger, and probably the Nobel Prize for literature as well. Votes: 0

Magic realism - somebody used that phrase the other day that is familiar with South American literature. That rang a bell. It resonates with me. Votes: 0

I read mostly Irish, African, Japanese, South American, and African writers. You can count on Scandinavian literature for a certain kind of darkness, a modern mythic style. Votes: 0

By the mid 1920s the typical American town was in full sexual bloom. The change came with erotic fashions, literature and movies, and an unsuspected sexual aid, the automobile. Votes: 0

All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn. American writing comes from that. There was nothing before. There has been nothing as good since." Votes: 0