Notable Quote: Tapping Out Messages from the Past

I came across this wonderful quote on Julie Davis' blog, Happy Catholic.  I've never heard of Connie Willis before, but looking her up I see she's a Science Fiction author.  I don't read much SiFi.  But this is a perfect quote for this blog.

That's what literature is. It's the people who went before us, tapping out messages from the past, from beyond the grave, trying to tell us about life and death! Listen to them!

-Connie Willis, Passage

Notable Quote: Isaac Bashevis Singer

In a comment to my blog entry on the Isaac Bashevis Singer's short story, "Grandfather and Grandson," my friend Sue mentioned she had just come across noteworthy quotes by that very author.  So in this Notable Quote entry I shall highlight one of his penetrating insights.


The very essence of literature is the war between emotion and intellect, between life and death. When literature becomes too intellectual - when it begins to ignore the passions, the emotions - it becomes sterile, silly, and actually without substance.
Isaac Bashevis Singer


Singer identifies the two extremes of poor written art, overly emotional or overly intellectual.  With overly emotional, the writer is expresses everything with no shape.  With overly intellectual, the writer provides a clever puzzle that ultimately doesn't engage the reader.