The unusual is only found in a very small percentage, except in literary creations, and that is exactly what makes literature.

Reality is not an inspiration for literature. At its best, literature is an inspiration for reality.

It is with noble sentiments that bad literature gets written.

There is a great discovery still to be made in literature, that of paying literary men by the quantity they do not write.

Life without literary studies is death.

With both agents and publishers hungry for bestsellers, literature will have to end up as a cottage industry.

There are only two or three human stories, and they go on repeating themselves as fiercely as if they had never happened before.

Shakespeare wouldn't have been any good if he'd stayed in Stratford. He had to go to London to be bathed in the full current of the Renaissance.

For the twenty million Americans who are hungry tonight, for the homeless freezing tonight, literature is as useless as a knowledge of astronomy.

The "greatness" of literature cannot be determined solely by literary standards though we must remember that whether it is literature or not can be determined only by literary standards.