The aim of poetry, it appears, is to fill the mind with lofty thoughts--not to give it joy, but to give it… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
The writers who have been serious about recreating American literature have always been far and few between. What we do have at… — Ana Castillo Copy Share Image
“Our fiction is not merely in flight from the physical data of the actual world…it is, bewilderingly and embarrassingly, a gothic fiction,… — Leslie Fielder Copy Share Image
It does not follow because many books are written by persons born in America that there exists an American literature. Books which… — Margaret Fuller Copy Share Image
Some people might be surprised that 'Rambo's creator has a doctorate in American literature. One of my influences is Henry James, whose… — David Morrell Copy Share Image
I didn't ever consider poetry the province exclusively of English and American literature and I discovered a great amount in reading Polish… — Edward Hirsch Copy Share Image
“He wanted to know about day-to-day life in America, what people ate and what consumed them, what shamed them and what attracted… — Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie Copy Share Image
“Sociologically, politically, psychologically, spiritually, it was never enough for James Baldwin to categorize himself as one thing or the other: not just… — Aberjhani Copy Share Image
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… — Will Self Copy Share Image
English is, from my point of view as an Americanist, an ethnicity. And English literature should be studied in Comparative Literature. And… — Paula Gunn Allen Copy Share Image
Throughout African-American literature, the writer has, in a sense, been burdened by the necessity of pleading the case for the whole race.… — Glenn Ligon Copy Share Image
Like no other writer in contemporary American literature, Brock Clarke has a way of looking at us, I mean looking straight at… — Peter Orner Copy Share Image
As a young writer, I was on guard against the Latina in me, the Spanish in me because as far as I… — Julia Alvarez Copy Share Image
Dagwood Bumstead was a great unrecognized hero of American literature. He showed up every day, he got knocked down every day, he… — James L. Brooks Copy Share Image
People don't realize how black people, minorities, women as well, all their lives, they have had to make the effort to understand… — Raoul Peck Copy Share Image
All I try to do is portray Indians as we are, in creative ways. With imagination and poetry. I think a lot… — Sherman Alexie Copy Share Image
One classic American landscape haunts all of American literature. It is a picture of Eden, perceived at the instant of history when… — Jonathan Raban Copy Share Image
At the age of 12 I won the school prize for Best English Essay. The prize was a copy of Somerset Maugham's… — Wilbur Smith Copy Share Image
I've translated a lot of American literature into Japanese, and I think that what makes a good translator is, above all, a… — Haruki Murakami Copy Share Image
Héctor Tobar's accomplished first novel affords a perspective that is overdue and urgently needed in North American literature- -an insider's vision of… — Stuart Dybek Copy Share Image
I think New York is working its way into my poems. It takes a while for a place to filter its way… — Nick Laird Copy Share Image
“Don Raimondo tells me what he can’t tell them. “The emptiness on the surface of a wall left by a sold bookshelf… — Erri DeLuca Copy Share Image
The designation is useful and necessary and sometimes limiting but it is only limiting to people who think, for example, that African-American… — Roxane Gay Copy Share Image
One is conscious of no brave and noble earnestness in it, of no generalized passion for intellectual and spiritual adventure, of no… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
![“Our fiction is not merely in flight from the physical data of the actual world…it is, bewilderingly and embarrassingly, a gothic fiction, nonrealistic and negative, sadist and melodramatic – a literature of darkness and the grotesque in a land of light and affirmation…our classic [American]…” quote by Leslie Fielder](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/9d5/leslie-fielder-256330_american-literature_our-fiction-is-not-merely-in-flight-from_1659268.jpg)
