Allen Ginsberg was a world authority on the writing of William Blake and had an incredible knowledge of classic literature and world politics.

Life has obliged him to remember so much useful knowledge that he has lost not only his history but his whole original cargo of useless knowledge history languages literatures the higher mathematics or what you will - are all gone.

Bobby Fischer has an enormous knowledge of chess and his familiarity with the chess literature of the USSR is immense.

Without a knowledge of mythology much of the elegant literature of our own language cannot be understood and appreciated.

Melville brought to the task a sound knowledge of actual whaling much curious learning in the literature of the subject and above all an imagination which worked with great power upon the facts of his own experience.

My favorite literature to read is fairly dry history. I like the framework and my imagination can do the rest.

People may think of Southern humor in terms of missing teeth and outhouse accidents but the best of it is a rich vein running through the best of Southern literature.

My books are shelved in different places depending on the bookstore. Sometimes they can be found in the Mystery section sometimes in the Humor department and occasionally even in the Literature aisle which is somewhat astounding.

The total absence of humor from the Bible is one of the most singular things in all literature.

With fiction you can talk about plot character and narrative whereas a poem brings home the fact that everything that happens in a work of literature happens in terms of language. And this is daunting stuff to deal with.

How do you make any sense of history art or literature without knowing the stories and iconography of your own culture and all the world's main religions?

I am trying to make clear through my writing something which I believe: that biography- history in general- can be literature in the deepest and highest sense of that term.

The study of history and philosophy accompanied by some acquaintance with art and literature should be for lawyers and engineers as well as for those who study in arts faculties.

I think I was a good student because I jumped over a school. My main interest was basically history and literature. Sports were basically basketball and swimming at a pool. I was so happy.

When I arrived at Columbia I gave up acting and became interested in all things French. French poetry French history French literature.

It takes a great deal of history to produce a little literature.

Literature is the expression of a feeling of deprivation a recourse against a sense of something missing. But the contrary is also true: language is what makes us human. It is a recourse against the meaningless noise and silence of nature and history.

A lawyer without history or literature is a mechanic a mere working mason if he possesses some knowledge of these he may venture to call himself an architect.

Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books history is silent literature dumb science crippled thought and speculation at a standstill.

I believe economic growth should translate into the happiness and progress of all. Along with it there should be development of art and culture literature and education science and technology. We have to see how to harness the many resources of India for achieving common good and for inclusive growth.

For Mythology is the handmaid of literature and literature is one of the best allies of virtue and promoters of happiness.

Time the great destroyer of other men's happiness only enlarges the patrimony of literature to its possessor.

What is wonderful about great literature is that it transforms the man who reads it towards the condition of the man who wrote.

I never wanted to become an actress because I'd read great literature or seen great Shakespeare. It was more just wanting to understand what the people were really like why they said all the strange things they did.