"I don't know what of our culture is going to survive, or if we survive. If you look at the Greek plays, they're really good. And there's just a handful of them. Well, how good would they be if there were 2,500 of them? But that's the future looking back at us. Anything you can think of, there's going to be millions of them. Just the sheer number of things will devalue them. I don't care whether it's art, literature, poetry or drama, whatever. The sheer volume of it will wash it out. I mean, if you had thousands of Greek plays to read, would they be that good? I don't think so."

3 likes

Source: Cormac McCarthy (2010). “The Crossing: Book 2 of The Border Trilogy”, p.143, Vintage

About the author

Cormac McCarthy

Novelist, Screenwriter

Cormac McCarthy is an acclaimed American novelist known for his stark prose and exploration of existential themes in works like 'The Road.'

All quotes by Cormac McCarthy →

Same author

More quotes by Cormac McCarthy

See all →
Cormac McCarthy Novelist, Screenwriter

"He stood at the window of the empty cafe and watched the activites in the square and he said that it was good that God kept the truths of life from the young as they were starting out or else they'd have no heart to start at all."

Read quote
Cormac McCarthy Novelist, Screenwriter

"He walked out in the gray light and stood and he saw for a brief moment the absolute truth of the world. The cold relentless circling of the intestate earth. Darkness implacable. The blind dogs of the sun in their running. The crushing black vacuum of the universe. And somewhere two hunted animals trembling like ground-foxes in their cover. Borrowed time and borrowed world and borrowed eyes with which to sorrow it."

Read quote