Caroline Gordon Quotes

United States, Novelist
October 6, 1895 – April, 11, 1981.

Caroline Ferguson Gordon (October 6, 1895 – April 11, 1981) was a notable American novelist and literary critic who, while still in her thirties, was the recipient of two prestigious literary awards, a 1932 Guggenheim Fellowship and a 1934 O. Henry Award.

Also known as Literary Critic

There are other great writers who are not read properly in their own day for the reason, perhaps, that their readers are not yet born. What they have to say to their own generation is said so at cross-purposes and with such apparent irrelevance that it is not understood. They are, as it were, giants who tower above their own age to cast their shadows across the next.

Caroline Gordon
- Great
- Age
- Purpose
A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter in any other way.

Caroline Gordon
- World
- Book
- Magic

As a rule, one must write a great many words before one learns to write well.

Caroline Gordon
- Great
- Writing
- Words
We do not judge great art. It judges us.

Caroline Gordon
- Great
- Art
- Judge
A first book often has enough material in it for half a dozen.

Caroline Gordon
- Book
- Enough
- Firsts
... passion, once unleashed, has a way of unleashing other passions -- a principle adhered to as firmly by the police force of any large modern city as by the Greek tragedians.

Caroline Gordon
- City
- Passion
- Police
It was strange how you could never form any conclusion from what women said. It was not that they did not know what they were talking about, but you never drew the right conclusions.

Caroline Gordon
- Women
- Strange
- Form