"Literature is claimed to be a mirror of the world, I said, "but the Outlanders are fooling themselves. The BookWorld is as orderly as people in the RealWorld *hope* their own world to be-it isn't a mirror, it's an aspiration."

Literature, Aspiration, Order, Imagination

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"Literature is claimed to be a mirror of the world, I said, "but the Outlanders are fooling themselves. The BookWorld is as orderly as people in the RealWorld *hope* their own world to be-it isn't a mirror, it's an aspiration."

Exlpore more Literature quotes

"I don't know where people got the idea that characters in books are supposed to be likable. Books are not in the business of creating merely likeable characters with whom you can have some simple identification with. Books are in the business of creating great stories that make you're brain go ahhbdgbdmerhbergurhbudgerbudbaaarr."

John Green, American Author

Literature, Books, Creativity, Life, Art

"Writers may be classified as meteors, planets, and fixed stars. They belong not to one system, one nation only, but to the universe. And just because they are so very far away, it is usually many years before their light is visible to the inhabitants of this earth."

Arthur Schopenhauer, German Philosopher

Literature, Fame, Legacy, Universe, Light

"This is not writing at all. Indeed, I could say that Shakespeare surpasses literature altogether, if I knew what I meant."

Virginia Woolf, British Author

Literature, Shakespeare, Writing

"I've read everything Thomas Wolfe ever wrote; my brother and I memorized whole chapters of 'You Can't Go Home Again' and 'Look Homeward, Angel.'"

Maya Angelou, American Poet

Literature, Reading, Memory, Brother, Poetry

"In our Impulsive nature to write and repulsive nature to read that has led to a decline in literary genius in our times!"

Ramana Pemmaraju, Indian Physician

Literature, Writing, Reading, Decline

"You could fire a machine gun randomly through the pages of Lord of the Rings and never hit any women."

Neil Gaiman, British Author

Literature, Gender, Humor, Satire

"I think that [William] Faulkner and I each had to escape certain particulars of our lives, and we found salvation through words. I understand the Bible story of Babel so much better now. I think that moments of extremity, desires of escape, lead us to foreign languages--not those learned in schools, but those plucked from the human heart, the searing conditions of isolation. I did not have to be limited to my biography because of words, and I shared this with Faulkner, who invented new words and punctuation and expression and worlds. He utterly reshaped the world."

Tennessee Williams, American Dramatist

Literature, Creativity, Expression, Escape

"Individuals often turn to poetry, not only to glean strength and perspective from the words of others, but to give birth to their own poetic voices and to hold history accountable for the catastrophes rearranging their lives."

Aberjhani, American Historian

Literature, Poetry, Expression, History, Creativity

"Fictional people are people, too, otherwise why would we care what happens to them?"

Nora Roberts, American Author

Literature, Fiction, Empathy, Emotion, Connection

"..holding a book but reading the empty spaces."

Ray Bradbury, American Writer

Literature, Reading, Emptiness, Observation, Silence

Explore more quotes by Jasper Fforde

"Honor is kind of what you get when you weaponize manners."

Respect

"But that was what research and development were like. Full of semi-triumphs and perplexing unforeseen consequences like the whole violent hiccuping thing when conjuring up fire - or the propensity for fillings to fall out of bystanders' teeth when attempting to tease a rainstorm out of a cloud."

Discovery

"Mr. McGregor's a nasty piece of work, isn't he? Quite the Darth Vader of children's literature."

Satire

"I hope that in my books there's an undertone of politics, basic tenets of how we should live."

Ethics

"Have you ever wondered how nostalgia isn"t what it used to be?"

Nostalgia

"When she turned I could see her face was plain and outwardly unremarkable, yet possessing of a bearing that showed inner strength and resolve. I stared at her intently with a mixture of feelings. I had realised not long ago that I was no beauty, and even at the age of nine had seen how the more attractive children gained favour more easily. But here in that young woman I could see how those principles could be inverted. I felt myself stand more upright and clench my jaw in subconscious mimicry of her pose."

Confidence

"Pretty?' I said, swivelling in the driver's seat to face him, 'you want to ask me out because I'm pretty?' 'Is there a problem with asking you out because you're pretty?' 'I think you blew it,' said Tiger with a grin. 'You should be asking her out because she's smart, witty, mature beyond her years and every moment in her company makes you want to be a better person - pretty of face should be at the bottom of the list.' 'Oh, blast,' said Perkins despondently. 'It should, shouldn't it?"

Respect

"The Real-World was a sprawling mess of a book in need of a good editor."

Reality

"All of everything came into existence simply because it wanted to be. The big bang wasn't so much a big bang as a hasty dash toward an opportunity to trade nothingness for somethingness. The main contributory factor to the entire universe was a momentary effect in need of a cause."

Creation

"Now and again. Good residency is about having the power to ask someone to do something, but not necessarily exercising it."

Leadership