"When literature becomes deliberately indifferent to the opposition of good and evil it betrays its function and forfeits all claim to excellence."
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Literature quotes
Literature
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Literature quotes (page 69 of 201)
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"I have for myself no conceivable complaint to make, and yet for American literature in general, and its standing in a country where industrialism and finance and science flourish and the only arts that are vital and respected are architecture and the film, I have a considerable complaint."
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"Literature was the passport to enter a larger life; that is, the zone of freedom. Literature was freedom. Especially in a time in which the values of reading and inwardness are so strenuously challenged, literature is freedom."
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"The ratio of authentic literature to trash in pornography may be somewhat lower than the ratio of novels of genuine literary meritto the entire volume of sub-literary fiction produced for mass taste. But it is probably not lower than, for instance, that of another somewhat shady sub-genre with a few first-rate books to its credit, science fiction."
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"If literature has engaged me as a project, first as a reader, then as a writer, it is as an extension of my sympathies to other selves, other domains, other dreams, other territories."
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"Literature usually begets literature."
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"Kingsley Amis was one of a trio of brilliant comic novelists who made English literature sparkle in the twentieth century."
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"There is a growing literature about the multitude of journalism's problems, but most of it is concerned with the editorial side of the business, possibly because most people competent to write about journalism are not comfortable writing about finance."
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"I've spoken out my whole life against the idea of simply dismissing whole areas of fiction by saying it's "genre" and therefore can't be seen as literature."
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"How do you know you're going to do something, untill you do it?"
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"People never believe you."
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"I'm very attracted to exile literature - particularly Nabokov - exactly because the idea of being away from home for any serious length of time is so inconceivable to me."
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"Hindu religious literature, indeed all religious literature, is full of illustrations to prove the truth."
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"If you're going to binge, literature is definitely the way to do it."
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"Painting taught literature to describe."
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"My religion is complicated. Literature is my true religion. After all, I come from a completely non-religious family."
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"There were, like, 20 of [Jackie Kennedy's biographies], which was interesting because they are not exactly high literature - they are pulpy.But the [Arthur] Schlesinger transcripts ended up being the most useful of anything."
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"The best work in literature is always done by those who do not depend on it for their daily bread and the highest form of literature, Poetry, brings no wealth to the singer."
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"The only link between Literature and the Drama left to us in England at the present moment is the bill of the play."
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"People like to complain about the state of contemporary literature, but I can only assume they don't read it very widely."
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