#great literature

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

Great literature should do some good to the reader: must quicken his perception though dull, and sharpen his discrimination though blunt, and mellow the rawness of his personal opinions. ↗

— A. E. Housman

#discrimination #dull #good #great #great literature

I think you can find all the elements that you can find in great literature in mundane experiences. ↗

— Harvey Pekar

#experiences #find #great #great literature #i

Great literature is simply language charged with meaning to the utmost possible degree. ↗

— Ezra Pound

#degree #great #great literature #language #literature

And in down times it shakes a lot of the bad SF out, a lot the stuff that was bought for literary reasons, which is neither entertaining nor great literature. ↗

— Jerry Pournelle

#bought #down #entertaining #great #great literature

When I read great literature, great drama, speeches, or sermons, I feel that the human mind has not achieved anything greater than the ability to share feelings and thoughts through language. ↗

— James Earl Jones

#achieved #anything #drama #feel #feelings

Of course the illusion of art is to make one believe that great literature is very close to life, but exactly the opposite is true. Life is amorphous, literature is formal. ↗

— Francoise Sagan

#art #believe #close #course #exactly

No one bothered reading the books and understanding - and again, I'm not being high-falutin' about it - but I think our books are great literature with great metaphors of real life dealing with fears and hopes. ↗

— Avi Arad

#again #being #books #bothered #dealing

What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote. ↗

— E. M. Forster

#condition #great #great literature #literature #man

I never wanted to become an actress because I'd read great literature or seen great Shakespeare. It was more just wanting to understand what the people were really like, why they said all the strange things they did. ↗

— Julie Walters

#because #become #did #great #great literature