Victor Shklovsky on "Quoting"

Quoting is necessary. I have said and will say again that we are walking holding on to the quotes, as we would hold onto a wall.


And, also, there is nothing truer than a quote, and the harder the work is, the harder is the task of quoting; and Tolstoy, whose work, whose soul, is continuously alive and continuously grows, is one of the most difficult examples.


. . .


Besides, the idea of quoting, the transporting of a thought into a new context, changes the original meaning of the phrase.


Victor Shklovsky