Literature Quotes

"Literature is the conscience of society, speaking truth to power."

"Poetry is what gets lost in translation."

"A good book should leave you... slightly exhausted at the end."

"There must be something in books things cannot get from anywhere else."

"The test of literature is its power to reveal something new about the human condition."

"Remarks are not literature."

"I used to think that poetry was what is said and prose was what is written."

"A book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible sheets that paint pictures and print words."

"The poet is a light and winged and holy thing."

"I have always believed that the written word is sacred."

"If you write what you know, you're always going to be upstaged by life itself."

"Literature is a mirror and a window."

"Literature teaches empathy."

"Genuine poetry can communicate before it is understood."

"The remarkable thing about Shakespeare is that he is really very good."

"The purpose of literature is the exploration of the human condition."

"Words strain, crack and sometimes break, under the burden they must bear."

"Poetry is the most perfect expression of human experience."

"Every reader is free to interpret according to his ability and sensibility."

"The mind of mature poets differs from that of others."

"The test of poetry is the reading of it."

"Literature is news that stays news."

"Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree."

"The book for the leisure time of the educated is the principal thing."

"The poet should seize the particular instant out of which no detail of direct impression can be left out."

"Literature is the most concentrated form of humanity."

"A poem is a machine for producing the poetic effect."

"I love the Psalms. They're poetic."

"None of my Sylvia Plath readings ever helped me get over it."

"I write about ordinary people in the extraordinary circumstances they find themselves in."