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Read through the most famous quotes by topic #literature
In the language of the day it is customary to describe a certain sort of book as “escapist” literature. As I understand it, the adjective implies, a little condescendingly, that the life therein depicted cannot be identified with the real life which the critic knows so well in W.C.1: and may even have the disastrous effect on the reader of taking him happily for a few hours out of his own real life in N.W.8. Why this should be a matter for regret I do not know; nor why realism in a novel is so much admired when realism in a picture is condemned as mere photography; nor, I might add, why drink and fornication should seem to bring the realist closer to real life than, say, golf and gardening. ↗
Lady #1, Maki, had never once given any thought to what was really right for her in her life, simply believing that if she surrounded herself with super-exclusive things, she'd become a super-exclusive person. ↗
Books are in the mind, Grandfather Alessandro said. Too many books and you forget your body is in the world. ↗
Which is probably one of the reasons those of us who love contemporary fiction love it as we do. We’re alone with it. It arrives without references, without credentials we can trust. Givers of prizes (not to mention critics) do the best they can, but they may—they probably will—be scoffed at by their children’s children. We, the living readers, whether or not we’re members of juries, decide, all on our own, if we suspect ourselves to be in the presence of greatness. We’re compelled to let future generations make the more final decisions, which will, in all likelihood, seem to them so clear as to produce a sense of bafflement over what was valued by their ancestors; what was garlanded and paraded, what carried to the temple on the shoulders of the wise. ↗
#love
I loved her; I didn’t know how to say it without breaking down the autobot façade she saw before her and revealing the ugly and scarred wreck that lived within my skin. So I played with the radio instead. ↗
Βλέπεις όμως, Ισμηνάκι μου, η ελευθερία είναι πιο δυνατή από την αγάπη, γιατί η αγάπη είναι κόρη της. Είναι ο καθρέφτης της, οι δυο όψεις της ζωής, που έλκονται και απωθούνται, όπως θα έλεγε και ο Αρχιτέκτονας στη γλώσσα της επιστήμης. Γιατί αγάπη χωρίς ελευθερία είναι φωτιά χωρίς ανάσα, και ελευθερία χωρίς αγάπη είναι μοναξιά του κερατά. Έτσι, αγάπη που περιορίζει την ελευθερία, γεννά την αγάπη για την ελευθερία. "Αυτό το παιχνίδι δίνει το ρυθμό του κόσμου", όπως μου 'λεγε τις προάλλες ο Φιλόσοφος. ↗
Where do starfish come from?” asked Sam. “From the sky,” answered Stella. “Starfish are shooting stars that fell in love with the sea.” “Weren’t the stars afraid of drowning?” asked Sam. “No,” said Stella. “They all learned how to swim. ↗
#children-s-literature #creativity #cute #imagination #picture-books
All writers are vain, selfish, and lazy, and at the very bottom of their motives there lies a mystery. Writing a book is a horrible, exhausting struggle, like a long bout of some painful illness. One would never undertake such a thing if one were not driven on by some demon whom one can neither resist nor understand. For all one knows that demon is simply the same instinct that makes a baby squall for attention. And yet it is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one's own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane. ↗
