Release date 06/11/03
The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Quotations, Second Edition
I always have a quote for everything - it saves original thinking
Dorothy L. Sayers
The long uphill struggle in playwriting is getting to the top of page one
Tom Stoppard
I've always thought people write because they are not living properly
Beryl Bainbridge
Lads don't write novels. They're down the pub
Martin Amis
I've mostly written about sex by means of the space break
Barbara Kingslover
I love deadlines. I love the whooshing noise they make as they go by
Douglas Adams
Just you try doing your VAT return with a head full of goblins
Terry Pratchett
Peter Kemp's highly acclaimed collection of literary quotations is brought up to date with this new expanded edition of The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Quotations, further illuminating the intriguing world of the writer.
The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Quotations brings together well over 4000 quotations - almost 900 quotations have been added - from classical literature to crime fiction and from the quill to the PC. It has the ability to provoke thought, stir emotion, excite the imagination, and give all sorts of different pleasure by means of words.
Including themes ranging from Tools of the Trade to Writer's Block, from Borrowing Books to Love, and Homer to Seamus Heaney, this new edition has additional themes: Solitude, Collaboration, Interruption, Illustration, Omission, Graffiti and, those ultimate literary pronouncements, Epitaphs.
Some of the latest quotations reflect recent developments in the literary world:
I am reliably informed that I have been responsible for 81 body-bags in and around Oxford, including three Heads of Colleges.
Colin Dexter
More quotations have turned up from remote areas and remote ages:
Clinic for the Soul
Anonymous: inscription on the library of Ramses II
And some will court controversy:
Without my imprisonment, Mein Kampf would never have been written
Adolf Hitler
Plus, with new insights from authors such as Melvyn Bragg, Michael Frayn, Shirley Hughes, Ian Rankin, Philip Pullman, and Zadie Smith, The Oxford Dictionary of Literary Quotations will be an inspiring collection from the first to last word.
Peter Kemp is Fiction Editor of the Sunday Times.
Reviews for the previous edition:
'This is a splendid book, well-organized, pleasant to use.'The Sunday Telegraph
'A decided success; it seems sure to be providing guidance and entertainment for many years to come.'Times Literary Supplement
'As welcome to the general reader as writers.'Sunday Times
'It will be relished by bookish readers and will serve as a wonderful catalyst for writers.'The Spectator
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