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English Literature Quotes

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English Literature Quotes

“Bitter criticism caused the sensitive Thomas Hardy, one of the finest novelists ever to enrich English literature, to give up forever the writing of fiction. Criticism drove Thomas Chatterton, the English poet, to suicide. . . . Any fool can criticize, condemn and complain - and most fools do. But it takes character and self-control to be understanding and forgiving.”

Source: How to win friends & influence people

“Ninety-nine per cent of traditional English literature concerns people who never have to worry about money at all. We always seem to be watching or reading about emotional crises among folk who live in a world of great fortune both in matters of luck and money; stories and fantasies about rock stars and film stars, sporting millionaires and models; jet-setting members of the aristocracy and international financiers.”

Source: And the Judges Said&…: Essays

“The cliché is dead poetry. English, being the language of an imaginative race, abounds in clichés, so that English literature is always in danger of being poisoned by its own secretions.”

Poetry Literature Language Race Danger Imaginative English Literature

Author:Gerald Brenan

“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times.”

“I graduated from the University of California, Los Angeles, with an English literature degree and travelled for a year before going to work.”

Years Literature Degrees University California Los Angeles Going To Work English Literature

Author:Natalie Massenet

“I studied English Literature. I wasn’t a very good student, but one thing I did get from it, while I was making films at the same time with the college film society, was that I started thinking about the narrative freedoms that authors had enjoyed for centuries and it seemed to me that filmmakers should enjoy those freedoms as well.”

Thinking Should Wells Film Literature Enjoy One Thing Century Students College Very Good Enjoyed Narrative Filmmaker English Literature Good Students

Author:Christopher Nolan

“In my teens, I developed a passionate idolatry for a teacher of English literature. I wanted to do something that he would approve of more, so I thought I should be some sort of a scholar.”

Should Wanted Literature Teacher Passionate Scholar Teens Idolatry English Literature

Author:Trevor Nunn

“For this reason, to study English literature without some general knowledge of the relation of the Bible to that literature would be to leave one's literary education very incomplete.”

Reason Would Be Literature Study Relation Incomplete English Literature General Education General Knowledge

Book:Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn

Source: Books and Habits from the Lectures of Lafcadio Hearn

“English literature is a glorious inheritance which is open to all - there are no barriers, no coupons, and no restrictions. In the English language and in its great writers there are great riches and treasures, of which, of course, the Bible and Shakespeare stand along on the highest platform.”

Courses Literature Language Highest Riches Treasure Glorious Barriers Leisure Platforms Inheritance English Language Restriction Great Writers English Literature

Author:Winston Churchill

“I have preferred to teach my students not English literature but my love for certain authors, or, even better, certain pages, or even better than that, certain lines. One falls in love with a line, then with a page, then with an author. Well, why not? It is a beautiful process.”

Wells Beautiful Certain Fall Literature Process Lines Teach Students Pages Falling In Love Why Not English Literature

Book:Professor Borges: A Course on English Literature

Source: Professor Borges: A Course on English Literature

“At graduation, I assumed I'd be in publishing, but first I went to England and got a master's degree in English Literature. And then I came back to New York and had a series of publishing jobs, the way one does.”

Way Firsts Doe Jobs Literature New York Masters Degrees England Series Publishing English Literature

Author:Joseph Kanon

“The movie Fifty Shades of Grey is considerably better written than the book. It is also sort of classy-looking, in a generic, TV-ad-for-bath-oil way. Dakota Johnson, who plays the virgin English-literature major Anastasia Steele, and Jamie Dornan, who plays Christian Grey, the wildly rich and sexually particular business titan who wants Miss Steele in his playroom, are exceedingly attractive actors with enviably supple bodies well suited to nakedness. And really, under the circumstances, movable parts matter more than acting skills.”

“When I entered college, it was to study liberal arts. At the University of Pennsylvania, I studied English literature, but I fell in love with broadcasting, with telling stories about other people's exploits.”

People Art Stories Literature Study College University Exploits Telling Stories Pennsylvania Broadcasting English Literature Liberal Arts University Of Pennsylvania

Book:Talking Back: To Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels

Source: Talking Back: To Presidents, Dictators, and Assorted Scoundrels

“My master's degree was in English literature.”

Literature Masters Degrees English Literature

Author:Sylvia Browne

“I studied English literature in the honors program, which means that you had to take courses in various centuries. You had to start with Old English, Middle English, and work your way toward the modern. I figured if I did that it would force me to read some of the things I might not read on my own.”

Ifs Way Mean Might Courses Literature Force My Own Modern Middle Century Honor Program Various English Literature Old English Middle English

Author:Jeffrey Eugenides