“I am one of the writers who wish to create serious works of literature which dissociate themselves from those novels which are mere reflections of the vast consumer cultures of Tokyo and the subcultures of the world at large.” WorldCultureLiteratureWishNovelSeriousReflectionMereConsumersTokyoSubcultureConsumer CultureSerious Work Author:Kenzaburo Oe
“I finally decided one day, reading science fiction magazines of the time, I could do at least as well as some of these people are doing. So I finally made a serious effort.” PeopleWellsMadeReadingLiteratureEffortFictionSeriousOne DayDecidedScience FictionMagazines Author:Fred Saberhagen
“It is important to remember that some of the most serious thinkers once thought that democracy was not compatible with the cultures of Germany, Italy, Japan, Latin America and Russia.” ImportantAmericaRememberCultureLiteratureDemocracySeriousRussiaGermanyJapanLatinThinkerLatin AmericaCompatible Author:Natan Sharansky
“I think people are smart enough to sort it out. They know when they're watching one of these food fight shows where journalists sit around and yell and scream at each other, versus serious issue reporting.” PeopleThinkingKnowsEnoughShowsFightingLiteratureIssuesSeriousSmartJournalistScreamVersusSerious Issues Author:Bob Woodward
“I think it's a very old and deep-seated double standard that holds that when a man writes about family and feelings, it's literature with a capital L, but when a woman considers the same topics, it's romance, or a beach book - in short, it's something unworthy of a serious critic's attention.” ThinkingMenWritingBookFeelingsRomanceLiteratureAttentionSeriousStandardsCriticsBeachTopicsUnworthyAbout FamilyDouble Standard Author:Jennifer Weiner
“Great, big, serious novels always get awards. If it's a battle between a great, big, serious novel and a funny novel, the funny novel is doomed.” IfsWritingBigsFunnyLiteratureNovelFateSeriousBattleAwardsDoomedAward WinningWinning Awards Author:Neil Gaiman
“All serious art, music, literature is a critical act. It is so, firstly, in the sense of Matthew Arnold's phrase: "a criticism of life." Be it realistic, fantastic, Utopian or satiric, the construct of the artist is a counter-statement to the world.” WorldArtLife IsArtistLiteratureSeriousCriticismCriticalStatementsFantasticPhrasesRealisticConstructsUtopianMatthewArt Music Book:Real Presences: Is There Anything in What We Say? Source: Real Presences: Is There Anything in What We Say?
“The cause which is blocking all progress today is the subtle scepticism which whispers in a million ears that things are not good enough to be worth improving. If the world is good we are revolutionaries, if the world is evil we must be conservatives. These essays, futile as they are considered as serious literature, are yet ethically sincere, since they seek to remind men that things must be loved first and improved afterwards.” IfsMenWorldFirstsEnoughTodayEvilLiteratureCausesMillionsProgressSeriousEarsBlockRevolutionarySubtleGood EnoughSincereImprovingEssaysNot Good EnoughScepticism Author:Gilbert K. Chesterton
“Poetry is a serious business; literature is the apparatus through which the world tries to keep intact its important ideas and feelings.” WorldTryingImportantIdeasFeelingsPoetryLiteratureSeriousPoetry IsSerious Business Book:A Poetry Handbook Source: A Poetry Handbook
“Judge and prosecutor had hammered it home that Lady Chatterly was an immoral woman, that she had had sexual relations before marriage, that she had committed adultery under her husband's roof; as if these charges somehow disqualified her from participation in serious literature. Indeed, there were long periods of the trial during which an outsider might well have assumed that a divorce case was being heard.” IfsWellsLongHomeMightLiteratureCasesHeardSeriousJudgingPeriodsHusbandRelationCommittedDivorceTrialsOutsidersRoofParticipationImmoralAdulteryProsecutorHammeredBefore MarriageCommitting Adultery Author:Kenneth Tynan
“As far as I know, Clifford Pickover is the first mathematician to write a book about areas where math and theology overlap. Are there mathematical proofs of God? Who are the great mathematicians who believed in a deity? Does numerology lead anywhere when applied to sacred literature? Pickover covers these and many other off-trail topics with his usual verve, humor, and clarity. And along the way the reader will learn a great deal of serious mathematics.” KnowsWayWritingFirstsDoeBookLiteratureDealsSeriousReaderAreasMathematicsSacredMathProofTheologyClarityMathematicalUsualMathematicianTopicsTrailsDeitiesProof Of GodMathematical ProofNumerology Author:Martin Gardner
“I recently did the David Letterman Show about my book. He was very serious and made no jokes and it caught me off guard a little bit. He was much more serious than some of the joke shows that journalists get on.” LittlesMadeBookShowsLiteratureBitsSeriousLittle BitJokesCaughtJournalistLetterman Author:Bob Woodward
“They see us interacting with people, they see us doing serious interviews, they see us having fun, and when you're conversing with someone, you get a much clearer impression of who that person is than if they are just reading into a news piece.” PeopleIfsPersonsReadingLiteratureFunPiecesSeriousNewsImpressionHaving FunInterviewsInteracting Author:Katie Couric
“You know, you've got serious pieces, you've got light pieces, you've got cooking segments, you've got health-related topics, so it's not as if they've had a unique personality from the get-go.” IfsKnowsLightLiteraturePiecesSeriousPersonalityUniqueCookingRelatedTopicsUnique PersonalityHealth Related Author:Katie Couric
“Poe gives the sense for the first time in America, that literature is serious, not a matter of courtesy but of truth.” GivingFirstsMatterAmericaLiteratureSeriousFirst TimeCourtesy Book:In the American Grain Source: In the American Grain
“I take literature as a really serious human activity. It's not just a playful thing. It can be hilarious and wonderful and performative, but I think it's really serious.” ThinkingHumansLiteratureWonderfulSeriousActivityHuman Activity Author:David Shields
“I initially studied literature [in France], and then I went to cinema school. I discovered the Cinematheque, and saw not only action movies and westerns, but also lots of serious movies.” ActionSchoolLiteratureSawsSeriousFranceCinemaAction Movie Author:Costa-Gavras
“Years later, I figured out why he (Ivan Karp) was such a successful art dealer-this may sound strange, but I believe it was because art was his second love. He seemed to love literature more, and he put the serious side of his nature into that...Some people are even better at their second love than their first, maybe because when they care too much, it freezes them, but knowing there's something they'd rather be doing gives them a certain freedom.” PeopleGivingYearsFirstsBelieveMayArtCareCertainLiteratureI BelieveSoundSidesKnowingSuccessfulToo MuchStrangeSeriousFreezeDealerCaring Too MuchLove Literature Author:Andy Warhol
“For someone who loves literature, and all books on principle, being asked to name three titles over a half century of serious reading is akin to asking one to recall their three favorite sunsets.” BookThreeReadingLiteratureNamesHalfPrinciplesCenturySeriousAskingTitlesSunsetRecallsLove Literature Author:Thomas Steinbeck
“Korean feminism is on the brink of death. Korea has a less clear boundary between popular literature and serious literature than in other countries. I feel that feminism is abandoned like a product that was a craze in the past.” FeelsCountryPastLiteratureClearFeminismSeriousProductsBoundariesAbandonedOther CountriesKoreaKoreanCrazePopular Literature Author:Kim Hyesoon
“If ideas are what feed serious literature and arresting language, who today is writing a novel of ideas (which can often mean comedy)? I think of Joshua Cohen. Who else?” IfsThinkingWritingMeanIdeasTodayLiteratureLanguageNovelComedySeriousArresting Author:Cynthia Ozick
“It always sounds kind of trivial, but when I was a kid I was always so impressed by how serious the comic books were. I always liked how they were half way between literature and the cinema. I liked the visuals and I liked the simplicity of a certain type of moral dilemma.” WayKindBookKidsCertainLiteratureSoundHalfMoralSeriousTypeSimplicityComicCinemaVisualsImpressedComic BookDilemmaHalf WayMoral Dilemma Author:Walter Hill
“I looked, for example, to certain types of literature to which I would like to refer, like The Peregrine by J. A. Baker, and I mention a book, "read this, read it, read it if you are serious of being in any type of art or into filmmaking," or films that I should quote as examples.” IfsShouldArtBookFilmCertainLiteratureExampleSeriousTypeFilmmakingBakers Author:Werner Herzog
“I always thought that I could write a novel. In my case, it was misguided. I do believe that the best nonfiction is not "literary journalism," a misleading term, but rather journalism that asks the questions that serious literature asks. It's storytelling that happens to be true. So I don't think it was a missed opportunity. After awhile you learn what you're really good at. Life is short, so spend time doing that.” ThinkingWritingBelieveLiteratureOpportunityTermNovelSeriousStorytellingBeing TrueJournalismEnd TimesSpend TimeLife Is ShortMisleadMissed Opportunity Author:Ron Rosenbaum
“The writers who have been serious about recreating American literature have always been far and few between. What we do have at the end of the 20th century that we didn't have at the beginning, at that time of the Lost Generation of rich white boys, is a mixture. We're now getting gay writers of color, let's say, and women of color being published. This is unprecedented.” LiteratureBoysRichSeriousGay20th CenturyAmerican Literature Author:Ana Castillo
“Once you get into the era of the printed book, it gets a little easier. After years and years, you make a serious survey of that literature, and then you make it more specific depending on what kind of case appears. I never set out to collect material on cheating at bowling, but I found out that after 20 years, I had a lot of material on cheating at bowling.” KindBookLiteratureSeriousCheatingPrintedBowling Author:Ricky Jay