Top 34 Literature Theory Quotes
#1. I am only a little rose who grows in deep and difficult places. ~ Song of Songs.
Nicole Arlyn
#2. Don Quixote is the best book out there on political theory, followed by Hamlet and Macbeth. There is no better way to understand the tragedy and the comedy of the Mexican political system than Hamlet, Macbeth and Don Quixote. They're much better than any column of political analysis.
Subcomandante Marcos Laura Castellanos
#3. Her novels, which I have not yet read, are usually described as the work of a writer's writer, or perhaps of someone who has been to the Institute for the Theory of Literature in Zagreb.
Clive James
#4. Doesn't the theory of relativity concern literature too? In our world there is no longer any room for the privileged observer, as there is none for the observer of the universe - we are all within.
Nina Berberova
#5. Literature is like phosphorus: it shines with its maximum brilliance and the moment when it attempts to die.
Roland Barthes
#7. The law is not an end in itself, nor does it provide ends. It is preeminently a means to serve what we think is right.
William J. Brennan
#8. First literature came to refer only to itself, the literary theory.
Mason Cooley
#9. A German singer! I should as soon expect to get pleasure from the neighing of my horse.
Frederick The Great
#10. I'm kind of a nerd when it comes to literature and theory. I wish I could have more of that in life, but I don't because I'm always reading scripts or things to prepare for movies when I'm reading.
Elizabeth Olsen
#11. Given the devaluation of literature and of the study of foreign languages per se in the United States, as well as the preponderance of theory over text in graduate literature studies, creative writing programs keep literature courses populated.
Marilyn Hacker
#12. These three classes of problems-determinations of significant fact, matching facts with theory, and articulation of theory-exhaust, I think, the literature of normal science, both empirical and theoretical.
Thomas S. Kuhn
#13. They were to bring the presence of the kingdom and its King into every corner of human life simply by fully living in the kingdom with him.
Dallas Willard
#14. What does literature do better than anything else? It provides a detailed representation of the inner experience of being alive in a given time and place.
Elif Batuman
#15. Flexibility is indispensable in the talks, .. Only if (the DPRK and the United States) show flexibility, it is possible to reach compromise.
Bill Vaughan
#17. I studied psychology in school, and the best psychology is in literature. It's so much easier to understand a character than a theory. You can recognize yourself - or other people - in a different way.
Natalie Portman
#18. I worked out a rather deep-dish theory defining the theater as a form of architecture rather than a form of literature.
Preston Sturges
#19. The ambition of much of today's literary theory seems to be to find ways to read literature without imagination.
Charles Simic
#20. In theory it was, around now, Literature. Susan hated Literature. She'd much prefer to read a good book.
Terry Pratchett
#21. For me, fantasy must be about something, otherwise it's foolishness... ultimately it must be about human beings, it must be about the human condition, it must be another look at infinity, it must be another way of seeing the paradox of existence.
George Clayton Johnson
#22. When the critic has said everything in his power about a literary text, he has still said nothing; for the very existence of literature implies that it cannot be replaced by non-literature
Tzvetan Todorov
#23. Fourteen years in the professor dodge has taught me that one can argue ingeniously on behalf of any theory, applied to any piece of literature. This is rarely harmful, because normally no-one reads such essays.
Robert B. Parker
#24. With me, my main vision for life was to avoid as many people as possible. The less people I saw the better I felt.
Charles Bukowski
#25. The methodologies of examining hip hop are borrowed from sociology, politics, religion, economics, urban studies, journalism, communications theory, American studies, transatlantic studies, black studies, history, musicology, comparative literature, English, linguistics, and other disciplines.
Michael Eric Dyson
#26. The theory of politics that emerges from the political literature of the pre-Revolutionary years rests on the belief that what lay behind every political scene, the ultimate explanation of every political controversy, was the disposition of power.
Bernard Bailyn
#28. I don't only write about English literature; I also write about chaos theory and ... ants. I can understand ants.
A.S. Byatt
#29. That's the first thing they teach you in bowling, by the way. Don't press the ball against your nose. The other one is don't lick the pins.
David Letterman
#30. Nothing, except the weather report or a general maxim of conduct, is so unsafe to rely upon as a theory of fiction.
Ellen Glasgow
#31. Literary theory has become a parody of science, generating its own arcane jargon. In the process, tragically, it discourages love of literature for its own sake.
Nancy Pearcey
#32. Good works may only be beautiful sins, if they are not done in a true spirit ...
Margaret Oliphant
#33. I always knew mum loved me - tough, look-after-yourself love, as if she knew she wouldn't always be there.
Alexandra Fuller
#34. Writers who teach tend to prefer literary theory to literature and tenure to all else. Writers who do not teach prefer the contemplation of Careers to art of any kind.
Gore Vidal
