Reverence is fatal to literature.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
Aphorisms are bad for novels. They stick in the reader's teeth.
There is far too much literary criticism of the wrong kind. That is why I never could have survived as an academic.
Most literature everywhere and of every time is bad.
Literary fiction, as a strict genre, is all but dead. Meanwhile, most genres flourish.
Literature is the denunciation of the times in which one lives.
I think respectful conflict is intrinsic to the spirit of literature. It reminds us that literary history is living and evolving and thrives on us being active participants.
In truth, even if they have an imperfect insight into their own methods, I still slightly mistrust writers of fiction who are assured literary critics; it makes me suspect that they favour the word over the world it should describe. Such scribes fall victim too easily to the solecism of equating style with morality.
The failure to read good books both enfeebles the vision and strengthens our most fatal tendency - the belief that the here and now is all there is.
The thing about literature is that, yes, there are kind of tides of fashion, you know; people come in and out of fashion; writers who are very celebrated fall into, you know, people you know stop reading them, and then it comes back again.
Reverence does not die with mortals, nor does it perish whether they live or die.