The birth of Literature according to Nabokov

"Literature was not born the day when a boy crying "wolf, wolf" came running out of the Neanderthal valley with a big gray wolf at his heels; literature was born on the day when a boy came crying "wolf, wolf" and there was no wolf behind him."
–Vladimir Nabokov (Lectures on Literature)
Thanks to my neighbor, Poetess Joanne Kyger, for unearthing this quote.