10 Quotes Championing Literature in a Changing World

In the age of social media, it’s often put to me that literature is dying, if not already dead.

Kids no longer read, I’m told – unless what they’re reading is in pidgin English, or social media slang – and so classic literature is dead.

I don’t buy it. I think social media is ephemeral and of its time. Classic literature, on the other hand, is enduring and timeless. What is changing, and will continue to change, is the way we consume literature.

I’ve pulled together ten quotes from literary giants to remind us of the importance of books in a changing world:

1. "Literature is the most agreeable way of ignoring life." - Fernando Pessoa

2. "Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become." - C.S. Lewis

3. "Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people and saying with ordinary words something extraordinary." - Boris Pasternak

4. "Literature is the most powerful means we have for communicating consciousness."- Susan Sontag

5. "The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go." - Dr. Seuss

6. "Literature is the most effective means we have of bridging the gap between cultures, between being the 'other,' and being understood." - Azar Nafisi

7. "Literature is the human activity that takes the fullest and most precise account of variousness, possibility, complexity, and difficulty." - Lionel Trilling

8. "Literature is the safe and traditional vehicle through which we learn about the world and pass on values from one generation to the next." - William J. Bennett

9. "Literature is the question minus the answer." - Roland Barthes

10. "A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading." - William Styron