literature Quotes

“Ours is essentially a tragic age, so we refuse to take it tragically.”

“Each age, it is found, must write its own books or rather, each generation for the next succeeding.”

“A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building should be seen by morning light, at noon and by moonlight.”

“Writers obviously have to bear witness to the harsh face of the age.”

“In the 1970s and 1980s there was so little decent fiction for young people, but we're now in a golden age that shows no sign of fading. Philip Pullman, J. K. Rowling, Lemony Snicket are only three of the best known among a good number of equals.”

“An age which is incapable of poetry is incapable of any kind of literature except the cleverness of a decadence.”

“A great age of literature is perhaps always a great age of translations.”

“Maybe it is something to do with age, but I have become fonder of poetry than of prose.”

“The young people have MTV and rock and roll. Why would they go to read poetry? Poetry belongs to the Stone Age. It awakens in us perceptions that go back to those times.”