John Boyle O'Reilly (1844–1890) Irish-born poet and novelist
Quoted in Roche, James Jeffrey (1891). Life of John Boyle O'Reilly, together with his complete poems and speeches edited by Mrs John Boyle O'Reilly. New York. p 195.
“The purpose of a writer is to keep civilisation from destroying itself."
(Interview,, September 14, 1958)”
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(Interview,, September 14, 1958)" by Bernard Malamud?
Bernard Malamud19
American author 1914–1986Related quotes
Christopher Morley book The Haunted Bookshop
The Haunted Bookshop (1919)
Context: Printer's ink has been running a race against gunpowder these many, many years. Ink is handicapped, in a way, because you can blow up a man with gunpowder in half a second, while it may take twenty years to blow him up with a book. But the gunpowder destroys itself along with its victim, while a book can keep on exploding for centuries.
Thomas Babington Macaulay, 1st Baron Macaulay (1800–1859) British historian and Whig politician
http://www.columbia.edu/itc/mealac/pritchett/00generallinks/macaulay/txt_commons_indiagovt_1833.html#13
Attributed
“Intense study of the Bible will keep any writer from being vulgar, in point of style.”
Samuel Taylor Coleridge (1772–1834) English poet, literary critic and philosopher
Specimens of the table talk of the late Samuel Taylor Coleridge, June 14, 1830, (1835) p. 177
“The purpose of a writer is to make revolution irresistible.”
Toni Cade Bambara (1939–1995) author, activist, professor
African Spir (1837–1890) Russian philosopher
Source: Words of a Sage : Selected thoughts of African Spir (1937), p. 55.
Thorstein Veblen book The Theory of the Leisure Class
Source: The Theory of the Leisure Class (1899), p. 23
Kate Bush (1958) British recording artist; singer, songwriter, musician and record producer
Source: Song lyrics, The Dreaming (1982)
