Van Wyck Brooks Quotes

I've been as bad an influence on American literature as anyone I can think of.

A wise soul once declared that the ultimate power of the writer is that he has the choice of whom he wants to be co-opted by.

Chekhov was as important to me as anybody as a writer.

I think that everything I've ever done at some point is part of someone else's legacy.

I'm not sure there's a difference between books that affected the way I see the world and books that influenced me as a writer.

I have believed in the biographies I have written. I truly can tell you that they have influenced our society politically, culturally, socially.

I love the power of words - no music or special effects - and I want to demonstrate that power.

The books I read, if they intrude on my writing, do so as weather will pass through and touch a landscape - affecting it, yes, but only now and then leaving a permanent mark.

Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it..

The men that write books are now the world's priests, the spiritual directors of mankind

It doesn't matter that millions read as long as you share it with somebody. So I don't really think about readers or editors. You especially should never think of editors - especially never think about reviewers.

The books you read as a young person are books that stay with you forever. I think that is the biggest privilege of writing for young people. You feel like you can help shape somebody.

If you realize early what your influence is, you can have a better understanding of what you are writing about.

There's a funny thing that, in film now, everybody thinks that the director does everything, and in TV, everybody thinks that the writer does everything, and I'm quite comfortable with that as a director. I don't mind that.

I'm sometimes asked how I would like to be remembered. I've had a diverse career as a writer, underwater explorer, space promoter and science populariser. Of all these, I want to be remembered most as a writer - one who entertained readers, and, hopefully, stretched their imagination as well.

Of what real value is a title? The power is the only important thing

The writing is the most important bit, and performing it is just closing the circle because I'm less likely to screw it up than anyone else.

Naturally a direct comparison of terrorist and novelist is complete nonsense. But there was once a time when the novelist also had some influence on how his contemporaries thought, the way they saw the world, the way they lived.

Who were my mentors in poetry and literature? This is a matter of opinion. Some see in my books the influences of authors whose names, in my ignorance, I have not even heard, while others see the influences of poets whose names I have heard but whose writings I have not read. And what is my opinion? From whom did I receive nurture? Not every man remembers the name of the cow which supplied him with each drop of milk he has drunk.

Next to the originator of a good sentence is the first quoter of it. Many will read the book before one thinks of quoting a passage. As soon as he has done this, that line will be quoted east and west.

It is humiliating to remain with our hands folded while others write history. It matters little who wins.

Novels do take charge of the writer, and the writer is basically a kind of sheepdog just trying to keep things on track.

A culture-bearing book, like a mule, bears the culture on its back. No one should sit down to write one deliberately. Culture-bearing books appear almost accidentally, like a sudden surge in the stock market. There are books of high quality that are a part of the culture, but that is not the same. They are a part of it. They aren't carrying it anywhere. They may talk about insanity sympathetically, for example, because that's the standard cultural attitude. But they don't carry any suggestion that insanity might be something other than sickness or degeneracy.

My life has been greatly influenced by many books which I have never read.