The Written Word Quotes

“The written word
Like a stone pillar
May last for centuries
Even if its meaning is forgotten.”
― Jack Borden

“For a while, Criticism travels side by side with the Work, then Criticism vanishes and it's the Readers who keep pace. The journey may be long or short. Then the Readers die one by one and the Work continues on alone, although a new Criticism and new Readers gradually fall into step with it along its path. Then Criticism dies again and the Readers die again and the Work passes over a trail of bones on its journey toward solitude. To come near the work, to sail in her wake, is a sign of certain death, but new Criticism and new Readers approach her tirelessly and relentlessly and are devoured by time and speed. Finally the Work journeys irremediably alone in the Great Vastness. And one day the Work dies, as all things must die and come to an end: the Sun and the Earth and the Solar System and the Galaxy and the farthest reaches of man's memory. Everything that begins as comedy ends in tragedy.”
― Roberto Bolaño, The Savage Detectives

“I still have enough faith in language to believe that if I place enough words next to each other on the page, they will start to speak with sounds of their own.”
― Dexter Palmer, The Dream of Perpetual Motion

“Writers strive to create definitive statements but forget that their work is often viewed through the cracked spectacles of perception. Others can take what is written, twist it to their own agenda and present it back to the author as fact, contrary to the original intention.”
― Stewart Stafford

“Written words...seem to talk to you as though they were intelligent, but if you ask them anything about what they say, from a desire to be instructed, they go on telling you just the same thing forever. And once a thing is put in writing, the composition, whatever it may be, drifts all over the place, getting into the hands not only of those who understand it, but equally of those who have no business with it; it doesn't know how to address the right people, and not address the wrong.

[Socrates]”
― Plato, Phaedrus

“No one lives out the words they preach or the advice they offer. This does not mean they don’t believe in the words they’ve written or spoken but instead are subject to life’s necessary standard deviations.”
― RJ Intindola – (Gandolfo) – 2001

“Words of any importance, of any real worth, appear on a page, not screen.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo