“But once an original book has been written - and no more than one or two appear in a century - men of letters imitate it, in other words, they copy it so that hundreds of thousands of books are published on exactly the same theme, with slightly different titles and modified phraseology. This should be able to be achieved by apes, who are essentially imitators, provided, of course, that they are able to make use of language.” MenShouldWritingHas BeensTwoBookDifferentUseAbleCoursesLanguageWrittenCenturyLettersOriginalsTitlesThemeCopiesApesImitatorUse Of Language Book:Planet of the Apes Source: Planet of the Apes
“Men who write love letters don't live in this century.” MenWritingCenturyLettersLove Letter Author:Rita Rudner
“The age was still dark and reeked of the havoc and misfortunes of the Goths who had put all good literature to destruction. But, by God's goodness, in my time light and dignity were returned to letters, and I see there such improvement that today I would have great difficulty being admitted to the most elementary classes--I, who in my time was reputed to be (and not wrongly) to be the most knowledgeable person of the century.” PersonsStillsLightAgeTodayLiteratureDarkEducationClassKnowledgeCenturyGoodnessDignityLettersDestructionDifficultyImprovementMy TimeMisfortunesKnowledgeableGothHavocGood LiteratureKnowledgeable Person Author:Francois Rabelais
“The literary wiseacres prognosticate in many languages, as they have throughout so many centuries, setting the stage for new hautmonde in letters and making up the public's mind.” MindLanguageCenturyStageCriticismLettersSettingSettingsMaking UpLiterary Criticism Author:Fannie Hurst
“A well-known magazine asks a man how they should refer to him, as Psychologist X, as Author X? He suggests man of letters, for that is what he is, in the eighteenth-century meaning. But they can't buy that because the word doesn't exist in Time-style; he cannot be that, and presumably the old function of letters cannot exist.” MenShouldWellsAsksKnownCenturyStyleLettersFunctionMagazinesWell KnownPsychologist Book:Growing Up Absurd: Problems of Youth in the Organized Society Source: Growing Up Absurd: Problems of Youth in the Organized Society
“To live with the work and the letters of James Joyce was an enormous privilege and a daunting education. Yes, I came to admire Joyce even more because he never ceased working, those words and the transubstantiation of words obsessed him. He was a broken man at the end of his life, unaware that Ulysses would be the number one book of the twentieth century and, for that matter, the twenty-first.” MenFirstsBookEndsMatterWould BeNumbersCenturyBrokenLettersTwentiesPrivilegeEnormousAdmireObsessedTwentieth CenturyJoyceUlyssesBroken ManTransubstantiation Author:Edna O'Brien