Eileen Myles Quotes

I did modern English and American literature at Kent University, with no Chaucer and no Middle English: a perfect course.

As an undergraduate I majored in British and American literature at Rice University.

I grew up reading a lot on literature and all of that.

Before college, I hadn't voluntarily read anything that might be called literature; I didn't think I'd understand it; I never seemed to understand my English teacher's interpretations of what we read.

I have a slightly bad back, which has made an enormous contribution to American literature.

If people aren't creating literature, there would be nothing for people to criticize.

My master's degree was in English literature.

My professional and human obsession is the nature of language, and my best relationships are with other writers. In many ways, I know George Eliot better than I know my husband.

I am more and more convinced that literature is made up of works, genres, schools, discussions, problems, collective work in order to solve certain problems.

I've had very close relationships with some twentieth-century writers.

My number-one website is brainpickings.org. It opens you up to different authors and gives insights into the literary world. Reading about the love letters novelist Vladimir Nabokov wrote to his wife Vera blew my mind. Fascinating.

I'm told I am over-choosy, and I shocked everybody by doing Jeffrey Archer. I did that to annoy everybody; sometimes, between Medea and Virginia Woolf, you can get punch-drunk.

I was taught Shakespeare brilliantly by an eccentric genius at Harrow named Jeremy Lemmon who made me want to be a writer.

I really liked English literature, a subject I did really well at.

First literature came to refer only to itself, the literary theory.

English culture is highly literary-based.

I was an English major in college!

The writer studies literature, not the world.

As an undergraduate, I had not studied literature - I was a history major.

I'm not that well-versed in literary theory - I don't know what it is.

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.

I was an English major in college, and then I went to graduate school in English at the University of North Carolina for three years.

All literature is gossip.

I wish I had read more and majored in literature rather than theatre. I think I would have been a better artist for it. I am trying to play catch-up now.

I admire American literature, both contemporary and classic - 'Moby-Dick' is just about the best book in the world - and I admire British literature for its insistence on dealing with social class. It may have been an influence.