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Susan Sontag Quotes about Literature

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The wisdom of literature is quite antithetical to having opinions. 'Nothing is my last word about anything,' said Henry James. Furnishing opinions, even correct opinions - whenever asked - cheapens what novelists and

The wisdom of literature is quite antithetical to having opinions. 'Nothing is my last word about anything,' said Henry James. Furnishing opinions, even correct opinions - whenever asked - cheapens what novelists and poets do best, which is to sponsor reflectiveness, to pursue complexity. Information will never replace illumination.

Susan Sontag
Illumination, Novelists, Literature
Susan Sontag (2007). “At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches”, p.154, Macmillan

Literature can train, and exercise, our ability to weep for those who are not us or ours.

Susan Sontag
Exercise, Literature, Ability
Susan Sontag, Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels (2003). “Susan Sontag: Ansprachen aus Anlass der Verleihung”

I don't write because there's an audience. I write because there is literature.

Susan Sontag
Writing, Literature, Audience

Perversity is the muse of modern literature.

Susan Sontag
Literature, Muse, Modern
1966 Against Interpretation,'Camus' Notebooks'.

writers are makers, not just transmitters, of myths. Literature offers not only myths but counter-myths, just as life offers counter-experiences - experiences that confound what you thought you thought, or felt, or believed.

Susan Sontag
Literature, Makers, Myth
Susan Sontag's Speech upon being awarded the "Friedenspreis des Deutschen Buchhandels" (Peace Prize of the German Book Trade), Frankfurt Book Fair, www.tomdispatch.com. October 12, 2003.

Literature was the passport to enter a larger life; that is, the zone of freedom. Literature was freedom. Especially in a time in which the values of reading and inwardness are so strenuously challenged, literature is freedom.

Susan Sontag
Reading, Literature, Passports
Susan Sontag (2007). “At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches”, p.266, Macmillan

Translation is the circulatory system of the world's literatures

Susan Sontag
Literature, World, Circulatory System
Susan Sontag (2007). “At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches”, p.226, Macmillan

Pornography is one of the branches of literature - science fiction is another - aiming at disorientation, at psychic dislocation.

Susan Sontag
Psychics, Fiction, Literature

If literature has engaged me as a project, first as a reader, then as a writer, it is as an extension of my sympathies to other selves, other domains, other dreams, other territories.

Susan Sontag
Dream, Self, Literature
Susan Sontag (2007). “At the Same Time: Essays and Speeches”, p.147, Macmillan

Literature usually begets literature.

Susan Sontag
Literature, Begets
Susan Sontag (2013). “Against Interpretation and Other Essays”, p.72, Penguin UK

The ratio of authentic literature to trash in pornography may be somewhat lower than the ratio of novels of genuine literary meritto the entire volume of sub-literary fiction produced for mass taste. But it is probably not lower than, for instance, that of another somewhat shady sub-genre with a few first-rate books to its credit, science fiction.

Susan Sontag
Book, Literature, May

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