"For those of us who take literature very seriously, picking up a work of fiction is the start of an adventure comparable in anticipatory excitement to what I imagine is felt by an athlete warming up for a competition, a mountain climber preparing for the ascent: it is the beginning of a process whose outcome is unknown, one that promises the thrill and elation of success but may as easily end in bitter disappointment. Committed readers realize at a certain point that literature is where we have learned a good part of the little we know about living."

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Source : Edith Grossman (2010). “Why Translation Matters”, p.26, Yale University Press

Edith Grossman

#Disappointment Quotes #Athlete Quotes #Adventure Quotes