“I grew up believing that the novel has nothing to do with pure literature. So I was taught by scholars.”
The Chinese Novel (1938)
Context: I grew up believing that the novel has nothing to do with pure literature. So I was taught by scholars. The art of literature, so I was taught, is something devised by men of learning. Out of the brains of scholars came rules to control the rush of genius, that wild fountain which has its source in deepest life. Genius, great or less, is the spring, and art is the sculptured shape, classical or modern, into which the waters must be forced, if scholars and critics were to be served. But the people of China did not so serve. The waters of the genius of story gushed out as they would, however the natural rocks allowed and the trees persuaded, and only common people came and drank and found rest and pleasure. For the novel in China was the peculiar product of the common people. And it was solely their property.
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Pearl S. Buck 95
American writer 1892–1973Related quotes
As quoted in World Authors 1950–1970 (1975) by J. Wakeman, pp. 221–223
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“In my little town
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Shi Zhengli (2020) cited in " China denies lab link to coronavirus as questions over origin mount https://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2020/feb/5/china-denies-lab-link-to-coronavirus-as-questions-/" on The Washington Times, 5 February 2020.
Twitter post https://twitter.com/jaynordlinger/status/1040653319478370304 (14 September 2018)
2010s
Source: Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
Nobel Prize acceptance speech (1962)
Context: Literature was not promulgated by a pale and emasculated critical priesthood singing their litanies in empty churches — nor is it a game for the cloistered elect, the tinhorn mendicants of low calorie despair.
Literature is as old as speech. It grew out of human need for it, and it has not changed except to become more needed.
The skalds, the bards, the writers are not separate and exclusive. From the beginning, their functions, their duties, their responsibilities have been decreed by our species.