Stephen Greenblatt Quotes

He taught me literature, and he actually taught me how to read. He was my personal mentor.

We're not in love with Literature all the time - especially when you have to teach it every day.

I love and care about literature, and great writers are our teachers. You're studying their mind when you read their work.

If you want to be a writer, don't worry so much about writing. Read as much as you can. Read as many different writers as you can. Soak up the styles.

I'm not a writer. I like being a reader.

I am a big devourer of James Baldwin.

My passion has always been books and literature, and teaching.

I write longer sentences than most of the others, maybe because I probably like Henry James more than they do.

You learn to write by reading, and my experiences and tastes as a reader are pretty wide.

We shouldn't teach great books; we should teach a love of reading. Knowing the contents of a few works of literature is a trivial achievement. Being inclined to go on reading is a great achievement.

I've found that writers who don't read really can't write.

A man who has any relish for fine writing either discovers new beauties or receives stronger impressions from the masterly strokes of a great author every time he peruses him; besides that he naturally wears himself into the same manner of speaking and thinking.

Re-reading is much underrated. I've read The Spy Who Came in from the Cold once every five years since I was 15. I only started to understand it the third time.

Literature illuminates life only for those to whom books are a necessity.

I guess the important thing for young writers is to read.

[To become a poet] The most important thing is to pay attention. The next would probably be to read; it's so important to pay attention. It keeps you from being bored, and I might add it keeps you from being boorish.

Read. Read. Read. Read. Read great books. Read poetry, history, biography. Read the novels that have stood the test of time. And read closely.

Clearly one must read every good book at least once every ten years.

I owe everything I am and everything I will ever be to books.

Books have always been important to me - my mom was a first grade teacher, so I grew up reading all the time.

It should not be Illiers-Combray that we visit: a genuine homage to Proust would be to look at our world through his eyes, not look at his world through our eyes.

What literature can and should do is change the people who teach the people who don't read the books.

In theory it was, around now, Literature. Susan hated Literature. She'd much prefer to read a good book.

I wanted to drag Shakespeare from obscurity. I've been a fan my whole life.

It's hard for me to believe that people who read very little (or not at all in some cases) should presume to write and expect people to like what they have written.