Given the devaluation of literature and of the study of foreign languages per se in the United States, as well as the preponderance of theory over text in graduate literature studies, creative writing programs keep literature courses populated. Marilyn Hacker
Great literature must spring from an upheaval in the author's soul. If that upheaval is not present then it must come from the works of any other author which happens to be handy and easily adapted.
Robert Benchley
Great literature must spring from an upheaval in the author's soul. If that upheaval is not present then it must come from the works of any other author which happens to be handy and easily adapted. Robert Benchley
Great literature should do some good to the reader: must quicken his perception though dull, and sharpen his discrimination though blunt, and mellow the rawness of his personal opinions. A. E. Housman
Here, you can walk into a bookstore and pick up a Bible or Christian literature and learn. Over there, they are lucky if they have one Bible for a whole village. Michael Scott
Herman Melville was as separated from a civilized literature as the lost Atlantis was said to have been from the great peoples of the earth. Edward Dahlberg
How do you make any sense of history, art or literature without knowing the stories and iconography of your own culture and all the world's main religions? Polly Toynbee
I am one of the writers who wish to create serious works of literature which dissociate themselves from those novels which are mere reflections of the vast consumer cultures of Tokyo and the subcultures of the world at large. Kenzaburo Oe
I attempt to write a good novel. Whether it is literature or not is something that will be decided by the ages, not by me and not by a pack of critics around the globe. Elizabeth George
I didn't choose Russia but Russia chose me. I had been fascinated from an early age by the culture, the language, the literature and the history to the place. Helen Dunmore
I gradually became persuaded that the subjects, without intending to, had revealed to me a basic truth about markets that was foreign to the literature of economics. Vernon L. Smith
I had all the normal interests - I played basketball and I headed the school paper. But I also developed very early a great love for music and literature and the theater. Carlisle Floyd
I have never believed that the critic is the rival of the poet, but I do believe that criticism is a genre of literature or it does not exist. Harold Bloom
I have to keep up with the scientific literature as part of my job, but increasingly I found myself reading things that weren't really relevant to my academic work, but were relevant to gardening. Ken Thompson
