401 Literary Quotes for You to Enjoy

I think speculative fiction has fewer unspoken prerequisites than literary fiction for writers of color. Nnedi Okorafor

Think Color Writers Unspoken Than Fewer Fiction Literary Literary Fiction Speculative

I don't care about being a literary personality - that doesn't appeal to me, especially because the literary world doesn't appeal to me. I actually don't feel like I even belong in it. If this was high school, I would be sitting with the Goths, looking at everyone, being like, 'Whatever.' Ottessa Moshfegh

Me Personality World School Care Looking Whatever Everyone High Would Would-Be High School About Feel Like Because Sitting Being Literary Appeal Even Actually Belong

National independence, and the preceding political struggles, helped create the space for literary creation in many post-colonial countries. Much of modern Indian or Chinese literature is inconceivable without the political movement for freedom from foreign rule. Pankaj Mishra

Freedom Political Space Independence National Creation Rule Indian Struggles Freedom From Countries Without Foreign Political Movement Modern Movement Literary Literature Chinese Create Much Helped Many Inconceivable

German writers in the late 18th century were the first to uphold a prickly, literary nationalism, in reaction to the then dominance and prestige of French literature. Pankaj Mishra

First Nationalism Late Prestige Writers French Reaction French Literature Were Dominance German Uphold Literary Literature Century Then

When I bought a collection of Tolstoy and Dostoyevsky, I returned home with a bright enthusiasm to begin the long march into the Russian soul. Though I've failed to read either man to completion, they both helped me to imagine that my fictional South Carolina was as vast a literary acreage as their Russia. Pat Conroy

Home Me Man Soul Enthusiasm Long Carolina Completion Though Collection Russia Russian Both Vast Bought Failed Read Returned South South Carolina Begin Literary Fictional Either Helped Tolstoy Bright March Imagine

Probably induced by the asthma, I started reading and writing early on, my literary efforts from the age of about nine running chiefly to poetry and plays. Patrick White

Age Writing Reading Nine Asthma Running About Poetry Induced Chiefly Efforts Literary Early Started Started Reading Plays

By the time I left the bar, I was 30. I was a dishwasher. They call it a bar-back, but essentially, I washed dishes for a living. I had no high-school diploma, I had no agent, and my literary successes were non-existent... but it was the only thing I ever wanted to do, so I did feel trapped. Patrick deWitt

Time Trapped Living Diploma Only Had Feel Call Non-Existent Were Left Did Essentially The Only Thing Wanted Dishes Literary Dishwasher Bar Agent Successes Washed Ever Thing By The Time

Certainly the highest posthumous praise that can be conferred upon any writer is the assertion that his or her writing permanently altered the literary landscape for the better, opening new textual doors and engaging new readers. That the author's oeuvre was essential and irreplaceable and transformative. Paul Di Filippo

Writing Better Doors Writer Highest New Opening Altered Readers Permanently Praise His Textual Author Conferred Any Essential Irreplaceable Literary Transformative Landscape Engaging Certainly Assertion Her

My belief is that nothing that can be expressed by mathematics cannot be expressed by careful use of literary words. Paul Samuelson

Mathematics Words Nothing Literary Cannot Use Belief Expressed Careful

Literary life used to be quite different in Britain in the years I lived there, from 1971 to 1989, because money was not a factor - no one made very much except from U.S. sales and the occasional windfall. Paul Theroux

Life Money Made Except Factor No-One Occasional Because Years Sales Very Quite Different Literary Much Used Lived Britain

When I started writing, I did have some idealised notion of my dad as a writer. But I have less and less of a literary rivalry with him as I've gone on. I certainly don't feel I need his approval, although maybe that's because I'm confident that I've got it. Paul Theroux

Japan, Germany, and India seem to me to have serious writers, readers, and book buyers, but the Netherlands has struck me as the most robust literary culture in the world. Paul Theroux

Me Culture Book World India Seem Netherlands Struck Writers Most Readers Robust Germany Literary Japan Serious Buyers

I don't know if nature is a direct literary influence on my writing, but it is certainly important to me. I take great joy in writing about it. It is something I have taken with me from my childhood; the body exposed to the threat of the physical world and at the same time being at home in it. Per Petterson

Time Home Great Nature Me Writing Joy World Important Great Joy Threat Physical About Direct Something Physical World Take Taken Know Same Childhood Same Time Being Influence Literary Body Certainly Exposed

I enjoyed reading and learning at school, and at university I enjoyed extending my reading and learning. Once I left Cambridge, I went to Yale as a fellow. I spent two years there. After that, George Gale made me literary editor of 'The Spectator.' Peter Ackroyd

I enjoyed Jonathan Franzen's 'Freedom.' Would I make that into a film? I think it's better suited to television. That would very much be a dialogue and performance piece, and it would take some very skilful direction - but not my kind of directing. But I thought it was a real literary work. Peter Weir

Work Freedom Better Thought Think Suited Television Kind Would Some Directing Direction Take Jonathan Performance Piece Make Real Dialogue Very Literary Literary Work Much Film Enjoyed

When you get inside a literary novel you feel that the author, more often than not, just doesn't know enough about things. They haven't been around enough - novelists never go anywhere. Once I discovered true books about real things - books like 'How To Run a Company' - I stopped reading novels. Peter York

You Reading Enough Books Once Run Inside About More Never True Feel Like Know Around How Real Go Been Discovered Than Author Get Often Just Stopped Literary Anywhere Company Novel Novelists Novels Things

I thought that I would have a huge literary novel coming out when I was, like, 29. I quit my banking job, and I was halfway through my second novel - and I will never publish it, because it's very mediocre. Philipp Meyer

I have some pretty forceful ideas about the world - obviously I do. But I suppose I can only really speak about them from within the protection of a literary form. Rachel Cusk

Speak World Protection Some Pretty About Only Suppose Ideas Obviously Forceful Within Form Literary Them Really

I've always wanted to write, but coming from a small-town background - I was born and brought up in Ludhiana - you think you're not the kind of literary person who will write books that will sell. There was always a kind of defensiveness in me. Ravi Subramanian

Me You Will Think Books Background Kind Born Brought Write Always Coming Sell Up Person Wanted Literary Who

On the page, 'Gone Girl' was a literary game: a tennis match of alternating chapters from Nick and Amy, with the reader offering to take each character's side every few pages. Richard Corliss

Character Game Girl Few Gone Every Side Chapters Take Tennis Reader Match Offering Literary Page Pages Each Nick Amy

As the idealized mother, I might choose Irene Dunne as the mother in 'I Remember Mama' who strives and not just cooks and scrubs for her children, but who also acts as her daughter's literary agent. Richard Corliss

Remember Mother Daughter Idealized Also Mama Just Children Literary Scrub Might Agent Choose Who Cooks Acts Her

You have to remember that in addition to running a literary agency, I am also an ebook publisher. Richard Curtis

You Remember Addition Running Also Am Literary Agency Publisher

I do not come out of a literary tradition. Richard Flanagan

Out Come Tradition Literary

I am, of course, greatly honoured to win the Booker, which is one of the great literary prizes in the world. Richard Flanagan

Great World Win Honoured Course Am Greatly Prizes Literary Which

Generally, literary prizes are significant not for who the winner is but the discussion they create around books. Richard Flanagan

Winner Books Significant Generally Around Discussion Prizes Literary Create Who

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