Literature does not reflect life, but it doesn't escape or withdraw from life either: it swallows it. - Northrop Frye

The disinterested imaginative core of mythology is what develops into literature, science, philosophy. Religion is applied mythology. (21.101)

An aphorism is not a cliche: it penetrates & bites. It has wit, and consequently an affinity with satire...Christ speaks in aphorisms, not because they are alive, but because he is. (p. 108)

If you haven't got an excremental vision you have no business setting up as a major satirist. (2:578-9)