Academic Quote by Terry Eagleton

“The average introduction to almost any book is somewhat of a bore”

— Boris Karloff

Literary theory has become a parody of science, generating its own arcane jargon. In the process, tragically, it discourages love of literature for its…

— Nancy Pearcey

I think literary theory satisfied a deep love I have for big, encompassing narratives about the world and how it works - which are…

— Jennifer Egan

I read a lot of literary theory when I was in graduate school, especially about novels, and the best book I ever read about…

— Lev Grossman

I think literary theory has not been terribly good for English studies in a while. It's not that theory isn't interesting, but it isn't…

— A. S. Byatt

I skip the introduction. If the book goes in the trash, I want it to go because of my thoughts on it, not because…

— James Frey

“Theory sometimes seems to me a way of taking revenge on literature—the critic masters the text and rewrites it in his own image, instead…

— Adam Kirsch

First literature came to refer only to itself, the literary theory.

— Mason Cooley

A preface is a species of literary luxury, where an author, like a lover, is privileged to be egotistical.

— Letitia Elizabeth Landon

“Most novels, if they are successful at all, are original in the sense that they report the existence of an area of society, a…

— Doris Lessing

“The ambition of much of today's literary theory seems to be to find ways to read literature without imagination.”

— Charles Simic

“Literature suffers because writers give their books to colleagues who will then write glowing reviews or saccharine introductions.”

— F. Sionil José