By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
‘The book to read is not the one that thinks for you but the one which makes you think’ is a quotation that is often attributed to Harper Lee, the author of the seminal work of twentieth-century American literature, To Kill a Mockingbird. But did Harper Lee originate this quotation?
The best quotations from writers – about the art of the novel
What should a novel be? Writers down the ages have often decreed that the novel should be one thing or another. Here are fifteen of the best quotes from writers about the novel as an art form, as a mode of social enquiry, as a book of questions, and much else besides.
A novel is a prose narrative of some length that has something wrong with it. – Randall Jarrell
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
This should be an easy question. Surely it was Oscar Wilde who first said, ‘I am not young enough to know everything’? It certainly sounds like one of Wilde’s witty quotations, and numerous quotation sites (see, for instance, here and here) attribute the line to Wilde, but the attribution predates the web, with James Scott’s Daily Writing Journal in 1987 giving Wilde as the author. But it appears the issue is a little more complicated than that. And the true origins of this quotation lie in a play by a writer best-known for a work of children’s literature.
By Dr Oliver Tearle (Loughborough University)
Here is a list of our favourite quotes about books from various writers, some famous, some not so famous. We’ve only included those quotations for which we’ve managed to track down a source, whether in print or online, so you know these are authentic quotes about books, rather than of the amusing-but-apocryphal kind.
Funny and witty sourced quotes from writers – about fools, folly, and foolishness
Here cometh April again, and as far as I can see the world hath more fools in it than ever. – Charles Lamb, cited in Wordsworth Book of Humorous Quotations
A common mistake that people make when trying to design something completely foolproof is to underestimate the ingenuity of complete fools. – Douglas Adams, Mostly Harmless
My nose itch’d, and I knew I should drink wine, or kiss a fool. – Jonathan Swift, ‘Polite Conversation’
In university they don’t tell you that the greater part of the law is learning to tolerate fools. – Doris Lessing, Martha Quest