Literature Sayings and Quotes

Below you will find our collection of inspirational, wise, and humorous old literature quotes, literature sayings, and literature proverbs, collected over the years from a variety of sources.

I believe all literature started as gossip. Rita Mae Brown
Perversity is the muse of modern literature. Susan Sontag
A people's literature is a great textbook for real knowledge of them. The writings of the day show the quality of the people as no historical reconstruction can. Edith Hamilton
I am earth, overtaking all things except words. They alone escape me. Therefore, I lie heavy on their makers. Rudyard Kipling
Words, when well-chosen, have so great a Force in them, that a description often gives us more lively ideas than the sight of things themselves. Joseph Addison
Literature is a luxury; fiction is a necessity. G.K. Chesterton
We must wash literature off ourselves. We want to be men above all, to be human Antonin Artaud
We must wash literature off ourselves. We want to be men above all, to be human Antonin Artaud
There is no surer foundation for a beautiful friendship than a mutual taste in literature. P.G. Wodehouse
Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life. Fernando Pessoa
I speak and speak, but the listener retains only the words he is expecting. It is not the voice that commands the story; it is the ear. Italo Calvino
Write what you know. That should leave you with a lot of free time. Howard Nemerov
People who are strangers to liquor are incapable of talking about literature. Mo Yan
It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature. Henry James
Literature is one of the most interesting and significant expressions of humanity. P.T Barnum
Anything in literature, including memory, is second-hand. Herta Muller
The sole substitute for an experience that we have not ourselves lived through is art and literature. Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn
Literature has as one of its principal allures that it tells you something about life that life itself can't tell you. I just thought literature is a thing that human beings do. Richard Ford
Literature is a textually transmitted disease, normally contracted in childhood. Jane Yolen
Literature is news that stays news. Ezra Pound
Serious literature does not exist to make life easy but to complicate it. Witold Gombrowicz