Literature Quotes

Books change lives. Authors and readers reflect on the power of the written word.

12844 quotes

D
"Literature is the conversation between souls across time."
Dino Buzzati
D
"Literature preserves the human condition."
Dino Buzzati
P
"I write to create empathy with the invisible, the forgotten, the margins."
Pier Paolo Pasolini
P
"To write is to unmask the lies we tell ourselves."
Pier Paolo Pasolini
P
"I speak for those whose voices have been silenced by history."
Pier Paolo Pasolini
C
"The great thing about the written word is that it can be pondered and reconsidered."
Cesare Pavese
C
"To write is to expose yourself without protection."
Cesare Pavese
C
"The written word outlives the spoken moment."
Cesare Pavese
P
"The need to narrate is a human universal."
Primo Levi
P
"The voice of the witness cannot be silenced forever."
Primo Levi
F
"Literature allows us to live lives we could never otherwise experience."
Federigo Tozzi
F
"The written word outlives the spoken promise."
Federigo Tozzi
"I wanted to offer a new interpretation of life through the medium of the novel."
Italo Svevo
"Writing is a way of understanding oneself and the world."
Italo Svevo
"Literature mirrors the human condition."
Italo Svevo
E
"The novel is a space where one can explore the depths of human consciousness without judgment."
Elsa Morante
E
"Literature rescues the forgotten from oblivion."
Elsa Morante
E
"The greatest truths are often hidden in fiction."
Elsa Morante
E
"The writer's eye sees what others refuse to acknowledge."
Elsa Morante
E
"The novel allows us to inhabit lives we will never live."
Elsa Morante
E
"The written word outlasts the speaker."
Elsa Morante
E
"The storyteller keeps alive what the powerful wish to bury."
Elsa Morante
C
"Literature is the most human of all the arts."
Cesare Pavese
P
"I write for those who don't read me, for the dead and the unborn."
Pier Paolo Pasolini
P
"Literary form is never merely formal; it is always political."
Pier Paolo Pasolini
E
"Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people."
Elio Vittorini
E
"The greatest stories are those that reveal something about the storyteller."
Elio Vittorini
E
"Great literature holds up a mirror to society and demands that we see ourselves honestly."
Elio Vittorini
E
"The writer must be both observer and participant in the human drama."
Elio Vittorini
P
"I believe in the responsibility of the writer to bear witness."
Primo Levi