"Literature is news that stays news." Ezra Pound

"The only sensible ends of literature are, first, the pleasurable toil of writing; second, the gratification of one's family and friends; and, lastly, the solid cash." Nathaniel Hawthorne

"The land of literature is a fairy land to those who view it at a distance, but like all other landscapes, the charm fades on a nearer approach, and the thorns and briars become visible." Washington Irving

"A classic is something that everybody wants to have read and nobody wants to read." Mark Twain

"Classic--a novel that is read spontaneously by pleasure-seekers and under duress by students." Matthew J. Bruccoli

"Don't read contemporary fiction. Stay away from anything written in the last ten years. It's all lousy. It's all slice of life. Storytelling is not slices of life. It's telling a story." Ray Bradbury (March, 1995)

"This is how we understand ourselves: We tell ourselves stories. The consolation of art is making it happen on paper or in music the way we wish it had happened." Ellen Hunnicutt

"The art of storytelling seems to imitate, not always very expertly, the art of dreaming." Howard Nemerov

"Puns are like children; you love your own, and can't stand anyone else's." Steve Stone (baseball announcer)