Quotes on Literature

The faster the word sticks to the thought, the more beautiful is the effect.

There are neither good nor bad subjects. From the point of view of pure Art, you could almost establish it as an axiom that the subject is irrelevant, style itself being an absolute manner of seeing things.

That one man scorned and covered with scars _x000D_ Still strove with his last ounce of courage _x000D_ To reach the unreachable star.

What makes literature interesting is that it does not survive its translation. The characters in a novel are made out of the sentences. That's what their substance is.

Filth and old age, I'm sure you will agree, are powerful wardens upon chastity.

Whoso will pray, he must fast and be clean, And fat his soul, and make his body lean.

Murder will out, this my conclusion.

The immense popularity of American movies abroad demonstrates that Europe is the unfinished negative of which America is the proof

We need literature because we wouldn’t fully know ourselves without it. We need good literature to be fully human.

I specialize in murders of quiet, domestic interest.

The paradoxes of today are the prejudices of tomorrow, since the most benighted and the most deplorable prejudices have had their moment of novelty when fashion lent them its fragile grace.

When it comes to privacy and accountability, people always demand the former for themselves and the latter for everyone else.

The best time to plan a book is while you're doing the dishes.

The vulgar man is always the most distinguished, for the very desire to be distinguished is vulgar.

There is no official censorship in literature, but I feel a certain fear when I see that a kind of self-censorship is developing in Poland. Authors are somehow afraid of expressing what they really think or feel because they fear political consequences.

Poetry is the opening and closing of a door, leaving those who look through to guess about what is seen during the moment.

Where would fashion be without literature?

Trying to be Supermom is as futile as trying to be Perfect Mom. Not going to happen.

Revenge is barren of itself: it is the dreadful food it feeds on; its delight is murder, and its end is despair.

Utility is the great idol of the age, to which all powers must do service and all talents swear allegiance.

No doubt the artist is the child of his time; but woe to him if he is also its disciple, or even its favorite.