Modern American literature was born in protest, born in rebellion, born out of the sense of loss and indirection which was imposed upon the new generations out of the realization that the old formal culture-the "New England idea"-could no longer serve.

Socrates wrote nothing. Christ wrote nothing.

The existence of good bad literature-the fact that one can be amused or excited or even moved by a book that one's intellect simply refuses to take seriously-is a reminder that art is not the same thing as cerebration.

The literary sensibility is geared to the timeless, that is, to the now only as an avenue by which all time can be reached.

I refuse to see literature as amusement, as a game. I think that you ought not to approach literature without a moral responsibility for every word you write.

Literature usually begets literature.

Perversity is the muse of modern literature.

The story [Henny-Penny] has the best opening in all literature-"The sky is falling," cried Henny-Penny, "and a piece of it fell on my tail."

No human being ever spoke of scenery for above two minutes at a time, which makes me suspect that we hear too much of it in literature.

Literature is the human activity that takes the fullest and most precise account of variousness, possibility, complexity, and difficulty.