Literature Quotes

"The human heart is very much what is meant by the humanities."

"The writer may always be trusted to exaggerate."

"The novel is of all imaginative things the most capable of embracing the whole of experience."

"To read is to aspire to something better."

"The most important are the first, last, and middle book you read."

"The art of reading is in great part that of acquiring a better understanding of life."

"Call me Ishmael, or call me a seeker of truth."

"What is any book but an attempt to establish truth."

"The written word is the voice that survives us."

"A writer--and, I hope that I am now one--must have a name that is short, melodious, and distinctive."

"The only sensible ends of literature are the attainment of truth and the production of beauty."

"No author, without a trial, can conceive of the difficulty of writing a romance about a country where there is no shadow."

"Language is the greatest invention for concealing our thoughts."

"Literature allows us to live in other people's pain."

"Literature reveals the human soul."

"Literature connects souls across time."

"The books that the world calls immoral are books that show the world its own shame."

"The reader is to make such concession to the author as the author has earned by his intelligence and his art."

"The reader is never quite satisfied until the author surprises him."

"The duty of an author is to be read."

"The writer's vocation is to describe the human soul in all its complexity and contradiction."

"Literature exists to remind us we are not alone in our darkness."

"The writer must love humanity even while seeing through their deceptions."

"We are shaped by the books we read and the people we love."

"Tell me something that will stay with me, that will mean something to me"

"The writing of fiction is like sculpture, where you must first give shape to formless matter"

"A man becomes a writer not because he has much to say, but because he cannot remain silent"

"Language is the only weapon I truly possess."

"To read is to want more of what made me feel good."

"The world is not made up of atoms; it is made up of stories."