Ap Literature Quotes

I was a screen
I was their protector. The more I saw, the less they would. ~ Henry James

One morning Gregor Samsa found himself, in bed, transformed into a monstrous vermin. ~ Franz Kafka

A contemptible person, but ready to face suffering! ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky

For my part, I love to give myself up to the illusion of poetry. A hero of fiction that never existed is just as valuable to me as a hero of history that existed a thousand years ago. ~ Washington Irving

WE ARE the PULSE of the TIMES! ~ Carrie White

There is scarcely any great author in European literature, old or new, who has not distinguished himself in his treatment of the supernatural. In English literature, I believe there is no exception from the time of the Anglo-Saxon poets to Shakespeare, and from Shakespeare to our own day. And this introduces us to the consideration of a general and remarkable fact, a fact that I do not remember to have seen in any books, but which is of very great philosophical importance: there is something ghostly in all great art, whether of literature, music, sculpture, or architecture. It touches something within us that relates to infinity ~ Lafcadio Hearn

Literature is a mystical place for me. It's not dry. It's where miracles happen. ~ John Darnielle

Truth is not always injured by fiction. ~ Charlotte Lennox

The relation between life and literature - a final antimony - is one of mutual plagiarism. ~ Mary McCarthy

I think it can be tremendously refreshing if a creator of literature has something on his mind other than the history of literature so far. Literature should not disappear up its own asshole, so to speak. ~ Kurt Vonnegut

Finance, like time, devours its own children. ~ Honore De Balzac

Oldboy makes us feel a part of something bigger than ourselves. It's a grand, gritty, indelible experience, the sort of picture that mimics great literature in the way it envelops you in a well-told story while also evoking subtle but strong gradations of emotion. ~ Stephanie Zacharek

Reason enables us to get around in the world of ideas, but cannot prescribe our thoughts. ~ Mason Cooley

For this decision, too, he had submitted to the overwhelming force of Sharon's personality, whose longings and needs seemed inalienable rights, whereas Marcus's were merely whims. ~ Panio Gianopoulos

If you haven't walked in someone else's shoes, it's difficult to know the fit, so be kind and compassionate. ~ Heather Wolf

If I had thought about it, I wouldn't have done the experiment. The literature was full of examples that said you can't do this. ~ Spencer Silver

We are all Greeks. Our laws, our literature, our religion, our arts have their root in Greece ~ Percy Bysshe Shelley

Men have been in charge of according value to literature, and ... they have found the contributions of their own sex immeasurably superior. ~ Dale Spender

The conventional way of understanding taste, according to Distinction, is to view it as a capacity for aesthetic judgments in areas such as music, art, and literature. Though rarely made explicit, it is well understood that taste can be found only among the elite, and that the lower classes lack it. Bourdieu argues that it is imperative to break with this concept of taste and replace it with one that is sociological in nature. In order to do so, Bourdieu expands the concept of taste from including only "aesthetic consumption" to including "ordinary consumption," that is, the consumption of clothing, furniture, and food ([1979] 1986:100). He also extends the concept of taste to all social classes, and shows that what constitutes "good taste" is very much part of the struggle for domination in society. ~ Richard Swedberg

The man who says his evening prayer is a captain posting his sentinels. He can sleep. ~ Charles Baudelaire

It's no wonder the narcissistic mother will always have a place in literature: she's a freak of nature. ~ Koren Zailckas

The castle is situated at the terminus of a long and upward-winding mountain road. It presents a somewhat forbidding aspect to the world, for there is little about it to suggest gaiety or warmth or any of those qualities that might assure a wayfarer of welcome. Rather, this vast edifice of stone exudes an austerity, cold and repellent, a hint of ancient mysteries long buried, an effluvium of medieval dankness and decay. At night, and most particularly on nights when the moon is slim or cloud-enshrouded, it is a heavy blot upon the horizon, a shadow only, without feature save for its many-turreted outline; and should the moon be temporarily released from her cloudy confinement, her fugitive rays lend scant comfort, for they but serve to throw the castle into sudden, startling chiaroscuro, its windows fleetingly assuming the appearance of sightless though all-seeing orbs, its portcullis becoming for an instant a gaping mouth, its entire form striking the physical and the mental eye as would the sight of a giant skull. ~ Ray Russell

For many potential Bible readers, this expectation that the Bible is univocal is paralyzing. You notice what seem to be contradictions or tensions between different voices in the text. You can't find an obvious way to reconcile them. You figure that it must be your problem. You don't know how to read it correctly, or you're missing something. You're not holy enough to read the Holy Bible. It might even be sacrilege for you to try. If the Bible is God's perfect infallible Word, then any misunderstanding or ambiguity must be the result of our own depravity. That is, our sinful nature as fallen creatures is what separates us from God, and therefore from God's Word. So you either give up or let someone holier than thou tell you "what it really says." I think that's tragic. You're letting someone else impoverish it for you, when in fact you have just brushed up against the rich polyvocality of biblical literature. ~ Timothy Beal

If I have nothing but a room full of books, it is enough for me to survive life. ~ Lailah Gifty Akita

The evening uneven sea glimmered with slices of dairy moon, the surface waves a shifting brew of dark tea stirred by an atmospheric spoon. ~ Neale Osborne

The tale that's told for no other reason but companionship, which is another (and my favorite) definition of literature, the tale that's told for companionship and to teach something religious, of religious reverence, about real life, in this real world which literature should (and here does) reflect. ~ Jack Kerouac

A little vanilla never hurt anybody." He nipped her ankle. "Great shoes by the way. Sexy as hell. ~ Hanna Lui

Whatever is produced in haste goes hastily to waste. ~ Saadi

People can endure almost anything but there's one thing they can't survive. Man is an animal that can't stand boredom ~ Koji Suzuki

Behind the big names of twentieth-century literature there stands a shadow cabinet of writers waiting to take over once the Wind of Change has blown. My own vote goes to Hugh Kingsmill as leader of this opposition. ~ Hugh Kingsmill

Pulverized by literature,' thought Miss Laburnum. 'The ideal way for a librarian to die. ~ Margaret Mahy

What I wanted to do was use literature and different kinds of stories and poems as a springboard, tapping into the creativity of our teens - I wanted teenagers to come up with their own creative responses to literature - using books themselves as a starting point. ~ Malorie Blackman

Unfortunately, there's still a market for rubbish. I picked up a recently written fantasy book at the weekend, and one character said of another: "He will grow wroth." Oh, my God. And the phrase was in a page of similar jaw-breaking, mock-archaic narrative. Belike, i'faith ... this is the language we use to turn high fantasy into third-rate romantic literature. "Yonder lies the palace of my fodder, the king." That's not fantasy - that's just Tolkien reheated until the magic boils away. ~ Terry Pratchett

I can't get very far away from Christianity, I can't get very far away from the angels and the saints. I work them in always, in some way. ~ Anne Rice