Background Quote by Italo Calvino

A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions It is classic because of a certain eternal…

— Ezra Pound

A classic is classic not because it conforms to certain structural rules, or fits certain definitions (of which its author had quite probably never…

— Edith Wharton

What makes a classic is difficult to define. It's entirely subjective, of course. And the term is employed far too promiscuously.

— John Boyne

A classic is a classic for a reason. Let's try to create new classics. The idea of repeating ourselves drives me a little crazy.

— Gina Prince-Bythewood

A classic is a book that doesn't have to be written again.

— W. E. B. Du Bois

A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read.

— Mark Twain

I actually don't like this term, "classic." It's wrong, but we don't have a better word at the moment.

— Esa-Pekka Salonen

A classic is like a hidden treasure. Its core is buried under so many layers of varnish that it can be reached only by…

— Jean-Louis Barrault

A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.

— Italo Calvino

A car isn't a classic just because it's old. To be a classic, a car has to tell us something of its time.

— James May

I think timelessness is a very important factor in whatever I do. That's what makes a classic.

— Patricia Field

Definition of a classic: a book everyone is assumed to have read and often thinks they have.

— Alan Bennett