Literature is the art of discovering something extraordinary about ordinary people, and saying with ordinary words something extraordinary.

To put an end to the spirit of inquiry that has characterized the West it is not necessary to burn the books. All we have to do is to leave them unread for a few...

In the only sense that matters the surprise works as well the twentieth time as the first. It is the quality of unexpectedness, not the fact that delights us. It is even better the second...

[…] marginile unei cărţi nu sunt niciodată clar şi riguros trasate: dincolo de titlu, de primele r nduri şi de punctul final, mai presus de configuraţia sa internă şi de forma care îi conferă autonomie,...

Each of them has only one moment, a moment when it soars screaming like the phoenix, all its pages aflame. For that single moment we love them ever after, although they soon turn to ashes.

There were two sets of double doors leading out of the antechamber, one marked STACKS and the other TOMES. Not knowing the difference between the two, I headed to the ones labeled STACKS. That was...

A library in the middle of a community is a cross between an emergency exit, a life raft and a festival. They are cathedrals of the mind; hospitals of the soul; theme parks of the...

The books are funny and sad, and that’s what people respond to.

How is it that, a full two centuries after Jane Austen finished her manuscript, we come to the world of Pride and Prejudice and find ourselves transcending customs, strictures, time, mores, to arrive at a...

A good novel, one which entices the author as much as it beckons the reader.

Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them; but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.

The flesh is sad, alas, and I have read all the books.

Whenever I got any money, I invested it in books. When my savings dwindled, I got rid of everything else—pictures, furniture, china. I think you understand what it is to be a passionate collector of...

On getting lost in a book. Set adriftA life unknownConnections formLove is sewn

Living your life is a long and doggy business. . . . And stories and books help. Some help you with the living itself. Some help you just take a break. The best do both...

Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading.

Every new book we read in our brief and busy lives means that a classic is left unread.

Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author’s words reverberating in...

Now that she had worn other faces, seen through other eyes, how could she ever say any face was really her own, even if it was the face she had been given at birth? When...

i read to escape reality.

The fundamental difference between books and movies is that the length of a book does not depend upon the capacity of the human bladder.

How the excitement comes upon me to tell it all! In the quest of writing, the heart can speed up with anticipation–as it does, indeed, during the chase itself of whales. I can swear it,...

If all printers were determined not to print anything till they were sure it would offend nobody, there would be very little printed.

If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.

she kept sliding down, in small half-willing surrenders, till she was a heap, with the book held tiringly above her face.

The definition of a good story is one that remains with you long after you’ve turned that last page.

Information is Key to Opportunities, So Pick Up a Book!

I seem to know all the cliches, but not how to put them together in a believable way. Or else these stories are terrible and grandiose precisely because all the cliches intertwine in an unrealistic...

Tal vez todos los libros se escriben sólo porque los malos juegan con ventaja y eso es insoportable.

So — I confess I have been a rake at reading. I have read those things which I ought not to have read, and I have not read those things which I ought to have...

Will I have to use a dictionary to read your book?” asked Mrs. Dodypol. “It depends,” says I, “how much you used the dictionary before you read it.

Cemeteries are full of unfulfilled dreams… countless echoes of ‘could have’ and ‘should have’… countless books unwritten… countless songs unsung… I want to live my life in such a way that when my body is...

The library would’ve cheered me up, most days. I loved the heavy oaken tables, the high walls stacked with books to the ceiling, the musty smell of old pages and the heavy brass fixtures that...

Every heart must have its privatebestseller book.

I wrote a book. It sucked. I wrote nine more books. They sucked, too. Meanwhile, I read every single thing I could find on publishing and writing, went to conferences, joined professional organizations, hooked up...

…ending a book with a sequel in such a way that the reader still has faith in the characters and in the writer. That’s finesse.

I want to print books by people in the film industry.

I used to have all the Goosebumps books as a kid too.

Pose your questions to people and you will get countless useless answers.

You write your books. You scatter your seeds. Rats might eat them, or they might rot. In California, some seeds lie dormant for decades because they only germinate after fire, and sometimes the burned landscape...

From whichever side I start, I think I am in an old place where others have been before me.

There is beauty in the art, and a story in the words! spk

Statesmen are grocers, ambitious clowns.

And as I surveyed the clutter of his study I was pleased to see that he was a man after my own heart. All of his money appeared to have been spent on either books...

Well, I’ve always read in bed, in early years by candlelight, succeeded by lamplight, gaslight, and now electric light, and I’ll probably be found dead there with some ponderous tome or book of poems on...

We live vicariously through stories, because our own lives provide so few opportunities for high-stakes adventure and noble sacrifice.

A library is a good place to go when you feel unhappy, for there, in a book, you may find encouragement and comfort. A library is a good place to go when you feel bewildered...

Reading may be the last secretive behavior that is neither pathological or prosecutable. It is certainly the last refuge from the real-time epidemic. For the stream of a narrative overflows the banks of the real....

Books were my passion and my escape from madness.

Lire un bon livre, ça redonne envie de vivre, ça vous donne envie de partir, A la recherche du temps perdu.