Related Authors: James Wood | The Broken Estate: Essays on Literature | Belief
Related Topics: james-wood, literature, quarterly-conversation, religion










If religion is true, one must believe. And if one chooses not to believe, one’s choice is marked under the category of a refusal, and is thus never really free: it has the duress of a recoil.” With literary belief, however, “one is always free to choose not to believe.” This, Wood argues, is the freedom of literature; it is what constitutes its “reality.
Related Authors: James Wood | The Broken Estate: Essays on Literature | Belief
Related Topics: james-wood, literature, quarterly-conversation, religion
© Vibe Quotes 2026 All Rights Reserved.