Everything is dangerous, my dear fellow. If it wasn't so, life wouldn't be worth living.
Oscar WildeRead
The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.
Interpretation
What this quote means
Literature engages and captivates readers, whereas journalism can often be inaccessible or difficult to appreciate.
In this quote, Oscar Wilde highlights the contrast between literature and journalism, suggesting that while literature has the power to resonate with and be cherished by readers, journalism often fails to captivate its audience, making it unreadable for many. Wilde's observation points to the idea that literary works are crafted with artistry and emotional depth, whereas journalism may prioritize factual reporting over literary quality, sometimes resulting in a lack of appreciation from the public.
Themes
LiteratureJournalismWritingReadingCommunication
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the role of media in society, this quote can emphasize the artistic value of literary works.
More from Oscar Wilde
All quotes βLondon is too full of fogs and serious people. Whether the fogs produce the serious people, or whether the serious people produce the fogs, I don't know.
Oscar WildeRead
When one has never heard a man's name in the course of one's life, it speaks volumes for him; he must be quite respectable.
Oscar WildeRead
Men always want to be a woman's first love - women like to be a man's last romance.
Oscar WildeRead
A truth ceases to be true when more than one person believes in it.
Oscar WildeRead
His morality is all sympathy, just what morality should be
Oscar WildeRead
Similar quotes
I think that an author who speaks about his own books is almost as bad as a mother who talks about her own children.
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I believe that all novels, ... deal with character, and that it is to express character β not to preach doctrines, sing songs, or celebrate the glories of the British Empire, that the form of the novel, so clumsy, verbose, and undramatic, so rich, elastic, and alive, has been evolved ... The great novelists have brought us to see whatever they wish us to see through some character. Otherwise they would not be novelists, but poet, historians, or pamphleteers.
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All novels must be autobiographical because I am the only material that I know. All of the characters are me. But at the same time, a novel is never autobiographical even if it describes the life of the author. Literary writing is a completely different medium.
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As Faulkner says, all of us have the capacity in us for great good and for great evil, for love but also for hate. I wanted to write those kinds of complex character in a fantasy, and not just have all the good people get together to fight the bad guy.
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Don Quixote β I read that every year, as some do the Bible.
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Ultimately, my books are not about the politics, although the toil and the struggle and the wars in Afghanistan have a significant impact on the lives of my characters.
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