Civilization Quote by Aharon Appelfeld

The African tribesman, with his complete contempt for truth and his emphasis on brutality and savagery for others but not for himself, is a…

— L. Ron Hubbard

If there is a category of human being for whom his work ought to speak for itself, it is the writer.

— Isaac Asimov

“I’ve often envied those writers in the Western world who can peacefully practice their craft and earn a living thereby… What [the authorities here]…

— KEN SARO WIWA written to PEN Center USA from his prison cell in Nigeria shortly before his execution

I think that writers are, at best, outsiders to the society they inhabit. They have a kind of detachment, or try to have.

— John Irving

“Writers by nature are subversive, observant, and discerning, and their voice contains that.”

— Amy Tan

The novelist must look on humanity without partiality or prejudice. His sympathy, like that of the historian, must be unbounded, and untainted by sect…

— Goldwin Smith

Throughout African-American literature, the writer has, in a sense, been burdened by the necessity of pleading the case for the whole race. For example,…

— Glenn Ligon

The romantic idea is that everybody around a writer must suffer for his talent. I think a writer is a citizen of humanity, part…

— Irwin Shaw

“[...] as Kurt Vonnegut pointed out [...] the literary novel has become extraordinarily privatistic of late. It's as if the big issues (Does God…

— James Morrow

I think writers are not only writers, they are also citizens.

— Chinua Achebe

I certainly don't object to [writers] trying to imagine the lives of other societies, but you have to do it with a certain amount…

— Michael Dorris

“None of these things spells the death of a tolerant, morally diverse Open Society. But they do remind us that constant talk of 'tribes'…

— Gerald F. Gaus