"If literature survives at all, it is as retreat for those who refuse to assimilate to American mass culture."

--

Source : Sven Birkerts (2006). “The Gutenberg Elegies: The Fate of Reading in an Electronic Age”, p.213, Macmillan

Sven Birkerts

#Mass Culture Quotes #Literature Quotes #Retreat Quotes

“The rise of the dramas in the thirteenth century, and the rise of the great novels in a later period, together with their frank glorification of love and the joys of life, may be called the Third Renaissance.”
“I try to teach my students style, but always as a part of life, not as ornament. Style has to come out of communicating coherent thought, not in sticking little flowers on speeches. Style and substance and a sense of life are the things literature is composed of. One must use one's own personality in relationship to life and language, of course, and everyone has such a relationship. Some people find it, some don't find it, but it's there.”
“Now that I have lost you I cannot allow you to develop, you must be a photograph not a poem.”
“We should have gone over years before that. I always wanted to and I think most of the band did.”
“Now I have a cat. Well, that's not quite accurate. A cat and I have each other.”
“Today I can declare my hope and declare it from the bottom of my heart that we will eventually see the time when that number of nuclear weapons is down to zero and the world is a much better place.”
“I'm still that little girl who lisped and sat in the back of the car and threw vegetables at the back of her head when we drove home from the market. That never goes.”
“So you're stuck. Every time your madman starts to write, your judge pounces on him... So start by promising your judge that you'll get around to asking his opinion, but not now. And then let the madman energy flow... Save details for the judge.”

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