After all, damn it, what does being in love mean if you can't trust a person.
Evelyn WaughRead
If we can't stamp out literature in the country, we can at least stop its being brought in from outside.
Interpretation
What this quote means
The quote suggests an attempt to control literature within a country while resisting external influences.
Evelyn Waugh's quote reflects a concern over the impact of foreign literature on a national cultural identity. It implies that if a government or society cannot entirely eliminate literature that it disagrees with, it can at least make efforts to prevent external influences from permeating its own literary landscape, highlighting the ongoing tension between censorship and cultural exchange.
Themes
LiteratureCensorshipCultural IdentityInfluenceNationalism
In practice
Example use cases
In a discussion about the importance of protecting local culture during a literature festival.
More from Evelyn Waugh
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There are no poetic ideas; only poetic utterances.
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Punctuality is the virtue of the bored.
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...she had regained what I thought she had lost forever, the magical sadness which had drawn me to her, the thwarted look that had seemed to say, "Surely I was made for some other purpose than this?
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That was the change in her from ten years ago; that, indeed, was her reward, this haunting, magical sadness which spoke straight to the heart and struck silence; it was the completion of her beauty.
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