A cultural divide?

[damigella]

"here encountering the first knot in the smooth skein of her argument." (V. Woolf, Orlando: A Biography)
"the smooth skein of his imagination had encountered the first knot:" (my fic A Member Of The Wedding)

How come quotations from Gone With The Wind, The Muppet Show or The Little Mermaid (Disney, not Andersen) are immediately recognized while a sentence lifted almost verbatim from Virginia Woolf goes unnoticed? 
Maybe I should use precise quotations. Maybe it's a US/UK issue. Feedback appreciated.

Comments

[cuddyclothes.livejournal.com]

I agree with the others about quotes from tv shows or movies being more recognizable than literary quotes. (Shameful confession: when I saw Kenneth Branaugh's movie of "Hamlet", I thought, "Wow, who knew so many famous quotes came from this play"? Actually, we saw "Hamlet" early in the day and "Beavis And Butthead Take America" in the evening, so we could say we saw the highest and lowest culture in one day.)

I've read a lot of Virginia Woolf (for class) and never liked her. I have, however, read everything George Orwell wrote. Everything. Not kidding. Except his grocery lists. Also everything by F. Scott Fitzgerald.

[damigella-314.livejournal.com]

I can't remember any quote from any movie, ever. I also rarely see movies again, and anyway not many times. I have a bad memory for stuff I hear as opposed to read, unless it's repeated very often, like slogans or some sentences in tv series (and of course I don't recognize American commercials).
Or unless it's songs (I have no ear for music, but I usually easily learn the words in a song - if I can understand them, which in English I usually cannot).