Literary Quotes

789 quotes by 605 authors

Every utopia - let's just stick with the literary ones - faces the same problem: What do you do with the people who don't fit… — Margaret Atwood
Every American poet feels that the whole responsibility for contemporary poetry has fallen upon his shoulders, that he is a literary aristocracy of one. — Wystan Hugh Auden
Two fundamental literary qualities: supernaturalism and irony. — Charles Baudelaire
Humorists can never start to take themselves seriously. It's literary suicide. — Erma Bombeck
There are people who say, 'Oh this guy is quite thick.' I think the reason is that, increasingly, I don't mind being simple in terms… — Alain de Botton
It is indeed difficult to make a living as a writer, and my advice to anyone contemplating a literary career is to have some other… — William S. Burroughs
They say the test of literary power is whether a man can write an inscription. I say, 'Can he name a kitten?' — Samuel Butler
God bless my father, but he always spoke in this continental, literary accent, probably because he was a professor of comparative literature and he made… — Nicolas Cage
So much of literary sci-fi is about creating worlds that are rich and detailed and make sense at a social level. We'll create a world… — James Cameron
I felt so conflicted about having fled the rez as a kid that I created a whole literary career that left me there. — Sherman Alexie
There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write. — Thomas Carlyle
All literary men are Red Sox fans - to be a Yankee fan in a literate society is to endanger your life. — John Cheever
I've always read broadly: literary fiction, sci-fi, fantasy, chick lit, historical, dystopian, nonfiction, memoir. I've even read Westerns. I prefer female protagonists. — Sandra Cisneros
There are many Latino writers as talented as I am, but because we are published through small presses, our books don't count. We are still… — Sandra Cisneros
Overall, my books represent a kind of shared communion and meditation with my fellow human beings... The books are also a part of what I… — Aberjhani
I can't help but to write, I have a inner need for it. If I'm not in the middle of some literary project, I'm utterly… — Kaari Utrio
By striving so mightily to accomplish specific goals on behalf of one segment of humanity, she [Toni Morrison] went beyond them to create literary wonders… — Aberjhani
Literary genres and techniques tend to take form in one's mind somewhat the way computer templates provide form for different computer tasks. — Aberjhani
When reading about what may be described as the lesser celebrated heroic figures of the Harlem Renaissance, we rarely get a definitive look at just… — Aberjhani
My sole literary ambition is to write one good novel, then retire to my hut in the desert, assume the lotus position, compose my mind… — Edward Abbey

Who Wrote These Literary Quotes

605 authors contributed a total of 789 Literary Quotes, led by these top contributors: