#literature

There must always be a fringe of the experimental in literature--poems bizarre in form and curious in content, stories that overreach for what has not hitherto been put in story form, criticism that mingles a search for new truth with bravado. We should neither scoff at this trial margin nor take it too seriously. Without it, literature becomes inert and complacent. But the everyday person's reading is not, ought not to be, in the margin. He asks for a less experimental diet, and his choice is sound. If authors and publishers would give him more heed they would do wisely. They are afraid of the swarming populace who clamor for vulgar sensation (and will pay only what it is worth), and they are afraid of petulant literati who insist upon sophisticated sensation (and desire complimentary copies). The stout middle class, as in politics and industry, has far less influence than its good sense and its good taste and its ready purse deserve. ↗

— Henry Seidel Canby

#literature #middle-class #middlebrows #diet

I have tried to write about politics in an allusive manner that draws upon other interests and to approach literature and criticism without ignoring the political dimension. Even if I have failed in this synthesis, I have found the attempt worth making. ↗

— Christopher Hitchens

#literature #politics #literary-criticism

Orlando said it was important for scientists to have minds kept open by literature, and souls touched by the creativity of art. ↗

— Megan Frazer Blakemore

#literature #art

A hidden spark of the dream sleeps In the forest and waits In the celestial spheres of the brain. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#celestial #circling #dejan-stojanovic #dreams #forest

Dreams are our only geography—our native land. ↗

— Dejan Stojanovic

#dreams #geography #land #literature #literature-quotes

I can only bow to the will of the heaven, but not to the will of these men. ↗

— Eiji Yoshikawa

#taira-no-kiyomori #the-heike-story #men

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

#any #author #come #easily #great

The force of Dante's poetry resonated most in those who did not confess the Catholic faith, for believers would inevitably have quibbles with Dante's theology. But for those most distant theologically, Dante's faith was so perfect, so unyielding, that a reader found himself compelled by the poetry to take it all to heart. ↗

— Matthew Pearl

#faith

A losing trade, I assure you, sir: literature is a drug. ↗

— George Borrow

#i #literature #losing #sir #trade

Literature has been the salvation of the damned, literature has inspired and guided lovers, routed despair and can perhaps in this case save the world. ↗

— John Cheever

#case #damned #despair #guided #inspired