401 Literary Quotes for You to Enjoy

I think there are more good sportswriters doing more good sportswriting than ever before. But I also believe that the one thing that's largely gone out is what made sport such fertile literary territory - the characters, the tales, the humor, the pain, what Hollywood calls 'the arc.' Frank Deford

Good Humor Made Before Gone Pain Believe Think Out Characters One Thing Arc More Tales Also Sport Calls Sportswriter Territory Doing Fertile Than The One Thing Literary Hollywood Largely Ever Thing

I wanted to avoid all that literary stuff. I didn't want the self pity of 'The Portrait,' all the moaning and the whingeing. I'm not knocking Joyce: we all owe him a debt. He's the one who made so much possible. Frank McCourt

We don't want to create a literary ghetto in which black writers are only allowed to write black characters and women writers are put on 'girl books.' G. Willow Wilson

Women Black Girl Books Ghetto Characters Only Write Writers Allowed Put Women Writers Want Literary Which Create

I'm like a unicorn; I'm a midlist writer who hasn't done anything else but write. But because I wasn't amazingly famous, I didn't become Stephanie Meyer, or even a huge literary name like a Jonathan Franzen or a Joshua Ferris. Gabrielle Zevin

Become Else Write Writer Jonathan Name Like Because Amazingly Huge Done Famous Literary Anything Anything Else Who Even

I have no favourite genre or style but treat each novel with the same care, imagination and craftsmanship. It's as difficult to write a crime or a children's novel with a touch of style and grace as it is a literary novel. Garry Disher

Grace Treat Care Crime Style Difficult Imagination Favourite Touch Write Genre Same Craftsmanship Children Literary Novel Each

Literary imagination is an aesthetic object offered by a writer to a lover of books. Gaston Bachelard

Lover Imagination Books Object Writer Aesthetic Offered Literary

I have the conviction that excessive literary production is a social offence. George Eliot

Conviction Excessive Offence Literary Social Production

Yes - 90% of fantasy is crap. And so is 90% of science fiction and 90% of mystery fiction and 90% of literary fiction. George R. R. Martin

Science Mystery Science Fiction Yes Fiction Crap Literary Literary Fiction Fantasy

If any imagine from the literary tone of the preceding remarks that we are indifferent to the radical movement for the benefit of the masses which is the crowning glory of the nineteenth century, they will soon discover their egregious mistake. George Ripley

There might be a different model for a literary community that's quicker, more real-time, and involves more spontaneity. George Saunders

Community More Spontaneity Involves Quicker Model Different Literary Might

Writing about Africa by Africans has been part of my literary apprenticeship, standing alongside works by authors such as Joseph Conrad, Joyce Cary and Graham Greene as influences. Giles Foden

Writing Apprenticeship Has-Been About Part Joseph Alongside Joyce Been Authors Africa Graham African Graham Greene Influences Literary Standing Works

I can't name three first-rate literary critics in the United States. I'm told there are a few hidden away at universities, but they don't print them in 'The New York Times.' Gore Vidal

Three Few States Hidden Critics New Name Print First-Rate Times York New York New York Times Literary Them United Away United States Universities

Our literary culture is marinated in deep traditions of the fantastic and the supernatural, and we export those rich qualities in films and books on a spectacular industrial scale. Graham Joyce

Culture Rich Films Our Books Those Scale Supernatural Industrial Qualities Traditions Literary Fantastic Export Deep Spectacular

To discuss a Martin Amis book, you must first discuss the orchestrated release of a Martin Amis book. In London, which rightly prides itself on the vibrancy of its literary cottage industry, Amis is the Steve Jobs of book promoters, and his product rollouts are as carefully managed as anything Apple dreams up. Graydon Carter

Dreams You Book First Carefully Release Rightly Jobs Must Promoters London Martin Cottage Steve Steve Jobs Industry His Up Itself Discuss Orchestrated Literary Anything Which Product Apple

I have not written a perfect sentence, in the literary sense. It's a lot easier to throw a perfect pass than to write a perfect sentence, if that sentence is meant to perform more than a mechanical function. Greg Iles

Sense Easier More Perfect Throw Write Written Perform Pass Lot Than Literary Sentence Meant Mechanical Function

A writer must face up to the test of reality, including political reality, and that can't be done if he keeps his distance. A literary style cultivated like a hothouse plant may show a certain artificial purity, but it won't really be pure. Gunter Grass

Reality Political Plant Pure Face Style Distance Must Purity Writer He Like Test Cultivated His Up Artificial Done May Literary Really Certain Show Including Keeps

I do have the sense that, although there may be no one way to write a novel, there are many novelists who are in fact part of some sort of larger literary community, whether in the form of a writing group or an MFA program, to name two of the more common forms. Hanya Yanagihara

Writing Sense Community Group Way Some One-Way More Fact Write No-One Part Name Sort Although May Common In Fact Form Literary Whether Forms Who Many Novel Novelists Larger Two Program

I tried to take seriously the idea that if you tortured language you might arrive at some new truth. Later it became clear to me that I was retreading ground by fighting the literary battles of the 1950s and 1960s, and that I was actually a bit bored by some of the books I professed to love. Hari Kunzru

Love Truth Me You Language Seriously Fighting Books Later Bit Battles Tried Tortured Bored Some Take Clear Idea New Became Arrive New Truth Literary To Love Might Ground Professed Actually

I had learned of Gertrude Stein's bon mot that medicine opened all doors. This prompted me, in different moods, to view my future life as literary psychiatrist, globe-trotting tropical disease specialist, or academic internist. Harold E. Varmus

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