Quotes about what Literature is

Instead of trying to come up and pontificate on what literature is, you need to talk with children, to teachers, and make sure they get poetry in the curriculum early. Votes: 3

A good story, just like a good sentence, does more than one job at once. That's what literature is: a story that does more than tell a story, a story that manages to reflect in some way the multilayered texture of life itself. Votes: 3

In literature as in love, we are astonished at what is chosen by others. Votes: 2

If what I write is literature, I guess you'd better emphasize the 'litter.' Votes: 2

What is not in the open street is false, derived, that is to say, literature. Votes: 2

I get upset about what is taken as great literature and what is cute and exotic. Votes: 2

I've been asked what differentiates war literature as a category, and I don't think there is anything. Votes: 2

Asian literature is evolving with the people. It's always a reflection on what's happening to the culture at large. Votes: 2

Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once. Votes: 2

This is not writing at all. Indeed, I could say that Shakespeare surpasses literature altogether, if I knew what I meant. Votes: 2

The writer studies literature, not the world. He is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write. Votes: 2

What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote. Votes: 2

What matters in literature in the end is surely the idiosyncratic, the individual, the flavor or the color of a particular human suffering. Votes: 2

The difficulty of literature is not to write, but to write what you mean; not to affect your reader, but to affect him precisely as you wish. Votes: 2

What good is a writer if he can't destroy literature? And us... what good are we if we don't help as much as we can in that destruction? Votes: 2

Just like all great stories, our fears focus our attention on a question that is as important in life as it is in literature: What will happen next? Votes: 2

All literature consists of whatever the writer thinks is cool. The reader will like the book to the degree that he agrees with the writer about what's cool. Votes: 2

What makes literature interesting is that it does not survive its translation. The characters in a novel are made out of the sentences. That's what their substance is. Votes: 2

Literature is reflecting what is happening in life. More and more women are having relationships with younger men. It's partly that women are not losing their figures now. Votes: 2

Literature isn't a moral beauty contest. Its power arises from the authority and audacity with which the impersonation is pulled off; the belief it inspires is what counts. Votes: 2

Indeed; peace literature is almost exclusively read, though to good effect, by pacifists, while what is needed is the canvassing of those who have not so far been won to the cause. Votes: 2

It is the nature of the artist to mind excessively what is said about him. Literature is strewn with the wreckage of men who have minded beyond reason the opinions of others. Votes: 2

Drama - what literature does at night. Votes: 0

In literature, you know only what you imagine Votes: 0

Ideas are to literature what light is to painting. Votes: 0

Taste is to literature what bon ton is in society. Votes: 0

What good is an obscenity trial except to popularize literature? Votes: 0

I consider what I write to be literature. I choose the words carefully. Votes: 0

What is a magazine? A small body of Literature entirely surrounded by advertisements. Votes: 0

What is literature compared with cooking? The one is shadow, the other is substance. Votes: 0

That is exactly the writer's problem. What does literature stand for in a hungry world? Votes: 0

When I read, it is not acted literature; but what I write is written acting. Votes: 0

What is literature but the expression of moods by the vehicle of symbol and incident? Votes: 0

All literature is a footnote to Faust. I have no idea what I mean by that. Votes: 0

Literature: proclaiming in front of everyone what one is careful to conceal from one's immediate circle Votes: 0

I think literature is best when it's voicing what we would prefer not to talk about. Votes: 0

The world does not need more Christian literature. What it needs is more Christians writing good literature. Votes: 0

The disinterested imaginative core of mythology is what develops into literature, science, philosophy. Religion is applied mythology. Votes: 0

You can tell a man's taste in literature by his judgment in knowing what not to read. Votes: 0

What lasts is what is written. We look to literature to find the essence of an age. Votes: 0

Photography's about the surface, what's happening at the top of the sea. Literature's about all the stuff below. Votes: 0

There are significant moments in everyone's day that can make literature. That's what you ought to write about. Votes: 0

What literature can and should do is change the people who teach the people who don't read the books. Votes: 0

What we value about music and literature are the moments that they create in our minds when we encounter them. Votes: 0

What literature brings to our times is always the fact that literature refuses to bring any simple or easy answers. Votes: 0

Literature begins with the possible model of experience, and what it produces is the literary model we call the classic. Votes: 0

The things that are said in literature are always the same. What is important is the way they are said. Votes: 0

The unusual is only found in a very small percentage, except in literary creations, and that is exactly what makes literature. Votes: 0

I think it is an important question of our lives - what is the meaning of literature to us as humans. Votes: 0

The creation by word-power of something out of nothing--what is that but magic? And, may I add, what is that but literature? Votes: 0

Woolf is an important writer for me, someone I read often and who forms part of my ideal of what literature can do. Votes: 0

For my students who are trying to learn the craft of writing in a writing class - contemporary literature is what's most useful. Votes: 0

If you want to understand what's most important to a society, don't examine its art or literature, simply look at its biggest buildings. Votes: 0

I am interested in things happening around me, and I need to understand what's going on in other artistic sectors like music and literature. Votes: 0

That is what literature offers"”a language powerful enough to say how it is. It isn't a hiding place. It is a finding place. Votes: 0

When a man can observe himself suffering and is able, later, to describe what he's gone through, it means he was born for literature. Votes: 0

What we need in literature today are vast philosophic horizons... we need the most ultimate, the most fearsome, the most fearless "Why?" and "What next?". Votes: 0

What people value in their books—and thus what they count as literature—really tells you more about them than it does about the book. Votes: 0

Most of the famous love affairs of literature or film were quite short. What was 'Romeo & Juliet'? How long were they together? A few days. Votes: 0

Most of the famous love affairs of literature or film were quite short. What was Romeo & Juliet? How long were they together? A few days. Votes: 0

I think enough cannot be said for what you can discover through literature. So I think that was probably my most valued characteristic as a teenager. Votes: 0

I guess I try to find the humor by juxtaposing deeper themes in literature with what people perceive as being lighter, disposable children's fare in comics. Votes: 0

Life and literature is a question of what one thrills to, and further than that no man shall ever go without putting his foot in a turd. Votes: 0

We're supposed to see "universal" love as heterosexual. What I insist upon in my work is that there is no such thing as universal love in literature. Votes: 0

Literature is what you write when you think you should be saying something. Writing begins when you'd rather be doing anything else: and you've just done it. Votes: 0

When literature becomes overly erudite, it means that interest in the art has gone and curiosity about the artist is what's important. It becomes a kind of idolatry. Votes: 0

It is now only in letters I write what I feel: not in literature any more, and I seldom say it, because I keep trying to be amusing. Votes: 0

The Vedic literature opens to us a chapter in what has been called the education of the human race to which we can find no parallel anywhere else. Votes: 0

By the way, the Harry Potter series is literature, in spite of what some people might say. The way J.K. Rowling worked that world out is quite something. Votes: 0

Without the faintest possibility of finding a job, I decided to devote myself to literature: it was about time to find out what I was worth as a writer. Votes: 0

I began as a boy with artistic talent... as a visual artist... I thought that was what I'd become and in my late teens drifted into reading serious literature. Votes: 0

People whose understanding and taste in literature, painting, and music are beyond question are, for the most part, ignorant of what is good or bad art in the theater. Votes: 0

Whatever Kurt Vonnegut's ultimate status will be in the annals of literature, he was important to a lot of people right now. That's what most writers really care about. Votes: 0

Those are the two things: a sense of loving and being loved, and being creative - that is what life is made up of, and what literature reminds us of. Votes: 0

I was trained in the '50s as a New Critic. I remember what literature was like before the New Critics, when people stood up and talked about Shelley's soul and such things Votes: 0

I was trained in the '50s as a New Critic. I remember what literature was like before the New Critics, when people stood up and talked about Shelley's soul and such things. Votes: 0

It's hard to know what [literature] will end up being timeless and what will be something that doesn't translate into the future, especially with the way we're evolving since our culture is changing so fast. Votes: 0