100 Quotes About Literary

It takes time to become a better person. You can’t become that person in an instant. It takes years of trial and error, mistakes, and lessons learned. That’s why we need to keep reading books! Books are packed with valuable information Read more

They often tell the truth, or at least they’re truthful in their intentions. Here are some of the most influential quotes about literature.

When a Wanderess has been caged, or perched with her...
1
When a Wanderess has been caged, or perched with her wings clipped, She lives like a Stoic, She lives most heroic, smiling with ruby, moistened lips once her cup of Death is welcome sipped. Roman Payne
A woman must prefer her liberty over a man. To...
2
A woman must prefer her liberty over a man. To be happy, she must. A man to be happy, however, must yearn for his woman more than his liberty. This is the rightful order. Roman Payne
When no possessions keep us, when no countries contain us,...
3
When no possessions keep us, when no countries contain us, and no time detains us, man becomes a heroic wanderer, and woman, a wanderess. Roman Payne
What is a Wanderess? Bound by no boundaries, contained by...
4
What is a Wanderess? Bound by no boundaries, contained by no countries, tamed by no time, she is the force of nature’s course. Roman Payne
Love enters later in life through the cracks left by...
5
Love enters later in life through the cracks left by the first heartbreak. D. Biswas
6
Phaedra keeps saying she's being selfish. That she hates herself for it, but she does it anyway. She can't deny herself what she wants, even if it brings about her downfall and his." "And have you learned anything from our literary parallel?" "Not really, I keep thinking that she would do it all over again if there were a chance..a chance that it could go right. Even if 99 times out of a 100 the story ends badly, it's worth it if only once she gets a happy ending. . Cora Carmack
7
Who’s to say what a ‘literary life’ is? As long as you are writing often, and writing well, you don’t need to be hanging-out in libraries all the time. Nightclubs are great literary research centers. So is Ibiza! Roman Payne
What is more precious: a thousand answers derived from one...
8
What is more precious: a thousand answers derived from one question? Or, one answer…from a thousand questions? G.F. Smith
9
Scent is such a powerful tool of attraction, that if a woman has this tool perfectly tuned, she needs no other. I will forgive her a large nose, a cleft lip, even crossed-eyes; and I’ll bathe in the jouissance of her intoxicating odour. Roman Payne
10
I’d loved women who were old and who were young; those extra kilos and large rumps, and others so thin there was barely even skin to pinch, and every time I held them, I worried I would snap them in two. But for all of these: where they had merited my love was in their delicious smell. Scent is such a powerful tool of attraction, that if a woman has this tool perfectly tuned, she needs no other. I will forgive her a large nose, a cleft lip, even crossed-eyes; and I’ll bathe in the jouissance of her intoxicating odour. . Roman Payne
11
Nobody ever wanted to go to war, but if a war came your way, it might as well be the right war, about the most important things in the world, and you might as well, if you were going to fight it, be called "Rushdie, " and stand where your father had placed you, in the tradition of the grand Aristotelian, Averroës, Abul Walid Muhammad ibn Ahmad ibn Rushd. Salman Rushdie
Life will be empty without great stories to read.
12
Life will be empty without great stories to read. Lailah Gifty Akita
I always say, 'Books beat boredom, ' said Amanda wisely.
13
I always say, 'Books beat boredom, ' said Amanda wisely. Mo Willems
Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not...
14
Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I would advise him to read the old. C.s. Lewis
15
How easily such a thing can become a mania, how the most normal and sensible of women once this passion to be thin is upon them, can lose completely their sense of balance and proportion and spend years dealing with this madness. Kathryn Hurn
16
Oh poor Octave, no luck at all, as usual, " said Madame Rocher, "he is still with his regiment, still only a captain. Of course, if it hadn't been for this wretched war, he would be at least a colonel by now. Nancy Mitford
17
When a friend of Abigail and John Adams was killed at Bunker Hill, Abigail's response was to write a letter to her husband and include these words, "My bursting heart must find vent at my pen. David McCullough
18
Because you live to love and love to live/ And because of what your heardrum will give/ Now we might love to live and live to love. Janet Goodfriend
19
I know I will always be attracted to the unknown as it does often verify what I am or what else I could be. Hollace M. Metzger
20
We are all born as storytellers. Our inner voice tells the first story we ever hear. Kamand Kojouri
21
An unliterary man may be defined as one who reads books once only.. .. We do not enjoy a story fully at the first reading. Not till the curiosity, the sheer narrative lust, has been given its sop and laid asleep, are we at leisure to savour the real beauties. Till then, it is like wasting great wine on a ravenous natural thirst which merely wants cold wetness. C.s. Lewis
22
Only the gods have many destinies and need never die. They are filled with everything and experience everything. Everything - except human happiness. That they can never know and therefore they grudge it to men. Nothing makes them so evil and cruel as that men should presume to be happy and forget them for the sake of their earthly happiness. Unknown
23
The story we write today will support the next generation. Lailah Gifty Akita
24
Reality is shaped by the forces that destroy it. D. Harlan Wilson
25
Knitting is a good way to pass the time when you're waiting for something to die. David Demchuk
26
Good children do taste better, but there are so few of them. If you can be satisfied with naughty children, you will always have food on the table. They are never in short supply. David Demchuk
27
Some stories need to be told time and again. Every generation forgets. Every child learns anew. David Demchuk
28
A book can be as dangerous as a sword in the right hands George R.r. Martin
29
We are all of the same substance, the same life. Though there are many differences between us, those are merely the shadows that delineate our boundaries. Our light is the same. Sally Wiener Grotta
30
In telling a story one of the most successful devices for easily creating uncanny effects is to leave the reader in uncertainty whether a particular figure in the story is a human being or an automaton and to do it in such a way that his attention is not focused directly upon his uncertainty, so that he may not be led to go into the matter and clear it up immediately. Ernst Jentsch
31
Memory is an artist, an impressionist. She adds colour, sound, smell and emotion to events at her whim. She adds, subtracts and embellishes until the event she started documenting is quite unrecognisable to the others who also experienced it, but at the same time, is more truthful to the owner of the memory. There is no reality. There are only impres- sions of past events, made by a million selves, all interacting with each other, vying for superiority. Reality doesn’t exist, perhaps in the end, that’s my only truth. Nigel Jay Cooper
32
Fate bring two people togetherand it is love's job t o keep them there. Juvy Ann
33
Life is short break the rules.forgive quickly, kiss slowly love truly. Laugh uncontrollably and never regret anything that makes you smile... Juvy Ann
34
String of fate brings two people together and it is love's job to keep them there. Juvy Ann
35
I thought you'd be interested in these things as a government man. Ain't you mixed up in the prices of things we eat or something? Ain't that it? Making them more costly or something. Making the grits cost more and the grunts less? Ernest Hemingway
36
Perhaps all love stories no matter how varied are essentially the same. Unknown
37
And although he recognized that tenderness was not the same as passion, and certainly not equivalent to love, for now it seemed to him a suitable substitute. Unknown
38
Was she happy? She thought — yes, reasonably so. Then again, what was happiness but the vast terrain between ecstasy and agony? Was this too small an ambition? Unknown
39
Once you break someone’s heart, you are forever its master. Unknown
40
Nothing felt better to him than the act of waiting for her. As long as he believed it wasn’t in vain, he was able to justify his presence. Unknown
41
On occasion he would think back to the fiercest passion it had been his pleasure to experience and reflect on what might have been. He would look upon the woman who occupied the opposite half of his bed and feel his life had not quite lived up to the promise of another day. These moments would be mercifully brief, or so he hoped. Unknown
42
It was almost as if she had willed him into existence, into standing before her at the precise moment she was willing to accommodate him, arriving not a minute too early or too late. Unknown
43
Most people surrendered fairy tale hopes in exchange for cookie cutter lives Unknown
44
His fierce appreciation of female beauty, the unrelenting desire he felt for their company, the pleasure he both derived and sought to give, had led him in and out of quite a few bedroom doors. Unknown
45
...forever meant different things to people at different times. They could imagine what infinity looked and felt like as much as they wanted, but could never truly grasp its meaning nor bear its full weight. Unknown
46
If Audrey sensed what he was contemplating, her silence did not let on. He turned from the window and found her looking at him with a flawless poker face. It may have been attentiveness and curiosity to hear what he would say next, or perhaps she was expecting from him what women throughout the ages, often against their better judgment, had expected of men. Unknown
47
...the locale did not make him think of her, nor did most things. He felt no negativity about the time they had spent together, but simply did not dwell on it much. She had been a seat filler, memorable as the smiling face of a beautiful girl in the window of a passing train, inspiring a fleeting moment of joy and promise, immediately forgotten with the opening of that day’s newspaper. Unknown
48
Life was a swirl of mysteries, each one waiting to be plucked up and explored, but not necessarily solved. As the weight of responsibility bore down on a person, it could feel like a long list of chores leading up to the final one - figuring out how to die with dignity. But Quincy’s interpretation of his surroundings seemed a truer representation of life’s meaning, or rather, the lack of meaning other than to dazzle and delight and befuddle from cradle to grave. Unknown
49
Was happiness (which was perhaps achieved not by getting what you wanted, but rather, by obtaining what you didn’t know you wished for until it was in hand) a hologram that would continually change appearance with the slightest shift of perspective? Or maybe happiness by definition was a temporary state of being recognizable only in hindsight. It was impossible to catch what always managed to be overrun and end up in the rear view mirror. Unknown
50
I hardly know her but whenever I see her I lose my mind. I know I should run away, but I can’t.“ That’s called sexual attraction, honey, ” Max said. “It’s very nice. But be careful. It can burn you bad. Believe me I know. Vanda
51
While he sweated out a story she bled put a poem. (Dark City Lights) S. J. Rozan
52
One realizes the immortality of true love only after the lover dies Kanza Javed
53
Gossip is not adopted by the bored. It is an art of discourse adopted by those who have experienced absolutely nothing thrilling in their lives; they have never really fallen in love or casually spoken to a complete stranger, and they never dreamt of doing anything extraordinary. They are a group of people with dull lives and souls. Kanza Javed
54
And what is gossip anyway? Just fragments of sad accounts, maneuvered and mutilated year after year for our sinful pleasure. Kanza Javed
55
I've always felt that good writing does not have to be literary. Sara Sheridan
56
Ô, wine! , the truth-serum so potent that all those who wish to live happy lives should abstain from drinking it entirely! ... except of course when they are alone. Roman Payne
57
And in a land accustomed to so much anguish, Chase tried to be careful with words. His soccer moms began assigningnicknames during the first day of official practice: Difom, Kakas, Kochma, and Maldyok, which roughly translated to Deformed, Carcass, Nightmare, and Bad Eye.He made a new rule regarding nicknames. Cole Alpaugh
58
I believe a family just isn’t complete without skeletons. My dearest momma clean bit off my daddy’s nose right around the time they divorced. Cole Alpaugh
59
Noriega wound up like a baseball pitcher on top of the bed and hurled the small gun, but was low and outside for a ball. His tight-fitting house dress was bunched up high on his chubby thighs, exposing olive drab underwear. I see London, I see France, I see a crazy dictator’s underpants! Chase’s thoughts raced. Cole Alpaugh
60
Limp finally spoke. “Do you think you could kill a person and not get all crazy about it? Cole Alpaugh
61
Bearing witness from the sides of the room, ten or more lepers shouted at the bizarre scene, “Diable! Diable! ” And then chants of some sort, or prayers, followed by more shouts of “Diable! ” They were hurling these words at Moreau like stones. Cole Alpaugh
62
The monkey liked most humans. They left food cans outside their homes for his family to rummage through in the morningsun. Some yelled and threw sticks, but were slow and didn’t bite. Humans were mostly harmless. Cole Alpaugh
63
Kids never jumped head first from the top ledge. Never. It seemed forever before Stoney came back to the surface. Most of the white bubbles had already disappeared. Cole Alpaugh
64
Whenever I’d get howlin’ over something, he’d grab my ass up from wherever I was and head straight for the john. Momma said my head would get banged up along the way, but she said itwas probably bein’ dunked under water that made me stupid. Cole Alpaugh
65
Grandpa said that we could solve a lot of the world’s problems if we considered cats and dogs edible. Like the neighbor’s dog who goes to the bathroom in his flower garden. And know what else? Cole Alpaugh
66
Sometimes I still feel that there are two of me: one clean, flawless picture, the other imperfect and cracked; one boy, one girl; one voice that speaks aloud and one that whispers in my ear; one publicly known to have been troubled but be on the mend, the other who has privately lost something to do with innocence and gained something to do with knowledge and adulthood that can never be undone. I feel sometimes there are things that tear me in two directions, that there are two sets of thoughts that grow side by side. But then I realize that I am whole, whatever that means and does not mean; I am complete without the need for additions or alteration. Abigail Tarttelin
67
It's odd to imagine, of course: you pass a car on a lonely rural highway; you sit beside a man in a diner and share views with him; you wait behind a customer checking into a motel, a friendly man with a winning smile and twinkling hazel eyes, who's happy to fill you in on his life's story and wants you to like him - odd to think this man is cruising around with a loaded pistol, making up his mind about which bank he'll soon rob.' - Richard Ford, Canada . Richard Ford
68
I'm a minicamp body in 102-degree heat getting screamed at by the only other man my size: a middle-aged receivers coach they call Bow Wow. Christopher Harris
69
Her eyes were a rich dark brown that were so deep, they reminded me of my sleepless nights, awake, staring into complete darkness. I felt compelled to look deeper, searching for something inside her, but her soul was covered and her eyes would not show me. Cristina Martin
70
All women together ought to let flowers fall upon the tomb of Aphra Behn, for it was she who earned them the right to speak their minds. Virginia Woolf
71
No one is sent by accident to anyone. Juvy Ann
72
Fate bring two people together and it is love's job to keep them there Juvy Ann
73
Copywriters, journalists, mainstream authors, ghostwriters, bloggers and advertising creatives have as much right to think of themselves as good writers as academics, poets, or literary novelists. Sara Sheridan
74
We can’t handle absence anymore, anything is better than the blankness; the quiet of nothingness. People fight to put images of love and hate — both equally nauseating — between themselves and the blank space that surrounds us. It’s the only escape, and yet we feel the pressure of the blankness pressing in against us, forcing the violent display ever closer, forcing us to demand images brighter, more graphic until they scorch our senses badly enough that we no longer feel the void and the images become our reality. But it’s ok. Most people don’t need to fear absence anymore — we’re blinded, permanently. There’s no need to seek out the light show that protects us either; inoculation precedes the sickness now. Sedation isn’t an option, it’s a shared reality. Most people don’t see the beauty of the system, how perfect our salvation is. Matthew Selwyn
75
I live within the world of books. Lailah Gifty Akita
76
One recalls the literary writer who, after grasping a story of a Mars voyage as a metaphor for isolation and the precariousness of relationships, realized that at a deeper, more subtle level it might even be a story about an actual trip to Mars! Michael Flynn
77
Write or perish in the banality of mediocrity! Thomas K. Matthews
78
I don’t know any writers who don’t drink. Unknown
79
Writers are much better behaved nowadays, for a couple of reasons. Once upon a time nobody was thinking of a career, unless you lived in New York, so there wasn’t as much pressure to present a respectable exterior. And secondly, there was no social media. So if you were found face down on the floor — people did do that quite a bit; usually men, but not always — or fell through plate glass windows or got into scrapes, it became a rumour, and rumours are hard to pin down. . Margaret Atwood
80
The centuries are sprinkled with rare magicwith divine creatureswho help us get past the common and extraordinary ills that beset us Charles Bukowski
81
Just because something isn’t good doesn’t mean it’s bad. Rebecca McNutt
82
Evil should not be, Detective Vera. Truly never can be. But in defining it as such, an inherent human bond with negativity confirms its very existence. Its mere acknowledgement cancels its credibility. Evil is nothing–the lack of anything of substance– made concrete as a balance to everything else. Evil is not, yet it is a part ofeach human, because humans welcome its participation in their lives. They speak of it in anger or disgust, fear or even wonder– the most appropriate response– giving it a stronger foundation with every passing thought it distorts. Though within their pliable minds, they welcome it with the glee of the ignorant, nurturing the unthinkable, thinking the unimaginable, imagining the most horrid, abysmal designs, embellishing them with an insidious veracity until evil is as substantial a reality as their next breath. I strive for something else, beyond evil’s claustrophobic clutches. I strive to transcend evil by becoming pure nothing. I strive as my followers strived.” He paused, his ideology a cancer, spreading… “I am, yet I strive to not be. Do you understand, comrade?” His tone suggested fellowship, disciples of the same obscene religion.. John Claude Smith
83
Sometimes sanity just means the ability to recognize the end of the road when you reach it. Robert Dunbar
84
Especially on rainy nights like this, they would congregate under the bridge, all the boys from nowhere, the boys who lived nowhere, who had nowhere else to go. Robert Dunbar
85
As it stands there is a very strong argument that as the book trade becomes increasingly corporate it's our literary heritage that is at risk - a vital part of our culture. Sara Sheridan
86
Perhaps that cruel girl was right? I should be a good girl, and my friend will be fine. I am too dramatic, always seeing the end in a flower blossom, the destruction in a raindrop. I must accept the things I cannot change. Bibiana Krall
87
One bright sunny day at a successful Literary Agency…Literary Agent: “So, Tina — we asked you to try and write a children’s story…” Tina: “Uh-huh. Christina Engela
88
All experiences are stories to be told and must be written. Lailah Gifty Akita
89
Shit, man, if you see a dog scratching at the dirt trying to dig something up, walk away real fast, ” he said, then pulled a little square of paper from his pocket and swallowed whatever was folded inside. Cole Alpaugh
90
The two smallest boys were cut down first, bodies bounding in different directions as they were shot from opposite sides of the field, like pinballs caught in a tight corner. Cole Alpaugh
91
That Yank glean is long gone anyway; money, sex, power, it’s gone global — no one has a monopoly on it anymore. The towering skyscrapers of New York had fallen long before the second plane; we all knew it. The twang of the Yank accent doesn’t give girls that twinge these days, even the dollar sign is looking dated, its day long past. No, America doesn’t have it anymore. But then nowhere does. We don’t chop the world up by borders anymore, don’t slice peoples and dice continents. It’s all a sweltering mess, a fucking free-for-all. We went global centuries ago, today we’ve gone digital, and digital doesn’t have borders. Matthew Selwyn
92
The Special Operations Network was instigated to handle policing duties considered either too unusual or too specialized to be tackled by the regular force. There were thirty departments in all, starting at the more mundane Neighborly Disputes (SO-30) and going onto Literary Detectives (SO-27) and Art Crime (SO-24). Anything below SO-20 was restricted information, although it was common knowledge that the ChronoGuard was SO-12 and Antiterrorism SO-9. It is rumored that SO-1 was the department that polices the SpecOps themselves. Quite what the others do is anyone's guess. What is known is that the individual operatives themselves are mostly ex-military or ex-police and slightly unbalanced. 'If you want to be a SpecOp, ' the saying goes, 'act kinda weird.. . Jasper Fforde
93
I'm intrigued by how ordinary behavior exists so close beside its opposite. Richard Ford
94
It was as if they'd discovered something that had once been there but had gotten hidden or misunderstood or forgotten over time, and they were charmed by it once more, and by one another. Which seems only right and expectable for married people. They caught a glimpse of the person they fell in love with, and who sustained life. For some, that vision must never dim - as is true of me. But it was odd that our parents should catch their glimpse, and have frustration, anxiety and worry pass away like clouds dispersing after a storm, refind their best selves, but for that glimpse to happen just before landing our family in ruin. Richard Ford
95
When I was eight years old, I was abducted from a fast food restaurant by a man who took me, in all likelihood, because of a small splotch of mayonnaise on his hamburger. And so I believe in neither free will nor predetermination. I believe in condiments. Michael Fiegel
96
A garden is never finished. In that sense it is like the human world and all human undertakings. Unknown
97
The gay revolution began as a literary revolution. Christopher Bram
98
I am a bomb but I mean you no harm. That I still am here to tell this, is a miracle: I was deployed on May 15, 1957, but I didn’t go off because a British nuclear engineer, a young father, developed qualms after seeing pictures of native children marveling at the mushrooms in the sky, and sabotaged me. I could see why during that short drop before I hit the atoll: the island looks like god’s knuckles in a bathtub, the ocean is beautifully translucent, corals glow underwater, a dead city of bones, allowing a glimpse into a white netherworld. I met the water and fell a few feet into a chromatic cemetery. The longer I lie here, listening to my still functioning electronic innards, the more afraid I grow of detonating after all this time. I don’t share your gods, but I pray I shall die a silent death. Marcus Speh
99
CONGRATULATIONS DL Havlin! Your entry, "There are No Lights in Naples", an unpublished short fiction - flash fiction genre category, is a finalist for the 2016 Royal Palm Literary Awards competition! Jeanelle Cooley
100
Most critics, fond of subservient artstill make the whole depend upon a part. They talk of principles, but notions prize And all to one loved folly sacrifice. Alexander Pope