#literature

It is difficult to call myself a writer, even when I stand at a podium to receive a prize, I feel uncomfortable calling myself a writer—I am merely a word criminal. ↗

— Murong Xuecun

#literature #freedom

Because at this time, in this place, Chinese writing exhibits symptoms of a mental disorder. ↗

— Murong Xuecun

#freedom-of-speech #freedom

The only truth is that we cannot speak the truth . The only acceptable viewpoint is that we cannot express a viewpoint. ↗

— Murong Xuecun

#literature #freedom

Literature for me… tries to heal the harm done by stories. (How much harm? Most of the atrocities of history have been created by stories, e.g., the Jews killed Jesus.) I follow Sartre that the freedom the author claims for herself must be shared with the reader. So that would mean that literature is stories that put themselves at the disposal of readers who want to heal themselves. Their healing power lies in their honesty, the freshness of their vision, the new and unexpected things they show, the increase in power and responsibility they give the reader. ↗

— Geoff Ryman

#freedom #freshness #healing #honesty #literature

Friendship is merely a glorified expression. In reality it is nothing but a reciprocal outpouring of slops. ↗

— Fyodor Dostoyevsky

#friendship

Literature exists at the same time in the modes of error and truth; it both betrays and obeys its own mode of being. ↗

— Paul de Man

#betrays #both #error #exists #literature

Stories of imagination tend to upset those without one. ↗

— Terry Pratchett

#humor #imagination #literature #stories #humor

The highest form of morality is not to feel at home in ones own home." Most great works of the imagination were meant to make you feel like a stranger in your own home. The best fiction always forced us to question what we took for granted. It questioned traditions and expectations when they seemed too immutable. I told my students I wanted them in their readings to consider in what ways these works unsettled them, made them a little uneasy, made them look around and consider the world, like Alice in Wonderland, through different eyes. ↗

— Azar Nafisi

#literature #morality #home

Beyond that, I seem to be compelled to write science fiction, rather than fantasy or mysteries or some other genre more likely to climb onto bestseller lists even though I enjoy reading a wide variety of literature, both fiction and nonfiction. ↗

— Joan D. Vinge

#beyond #both #climb #compelled #enjoy

Others may write from the head, but he writes from the heart, and the heart will always understand him. ↗

— Washington Irving

#the-mutability-of-literature #writers #writing #inspirational