When once the itch of literature comes over a man, nothing can cure it but the scratching of a pen. But if you have not a pen, I suppose you must scratch any way you can. – Samuel Lover, Handy Andy, 1842

The thing that teases the mind over and over for years, and at last gets itself put down rightly on paper — whether little or great, it belongs to Literature. – Sarah Orne Jewett, letter to Willa Cather

Literature is the echo of life. – Alexandre Vinet (1797–1847), paraphrase