The young need discipline and a full bookcase.

The show must go on, and so must The Book.

I’m not trying to please anyone. I’m just trying to write a damn book.

I am Envy…I cannot read and therefore wish all books burned.

Despite the enormous quantity of books, how few people read! And if one reads profitably, one would realize how much stupid stuff the vulgar herd is content to swallow every day.

When you adapt to someone, they become a part of your routine, a part of you. And when they’re taken away, you feel a bit lost. No matter how much you think it won’t affect...

To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.

What we need now are heroes and heroines, about a million of them, one brave deed is worth a thousand books. Sentiment without action is the ruin of the soul.

Bill Gates (and his successor at Microsoft, Ray Ozzie) are famous for taking annual reading vacations. During the year they deliberately cultivate a stack of reading material—much of it unrelated to their day-to-day focus at...

Inside the front flap of the book were handwritten names of the dozen or so people who had checked the book out before Naomi. Instead of writing her name, Naomi had a thin paper receipt...

I never actually had a guitar lesson. I taught myself the guitar from piano exercise books, which led me to have a pretty good technique on the guitar and allowed me to find different ways...

There has always been, for me, this other world, this second world to fall back on–a more reliable world in so far as it does not hide that its premise is illusion.

It was understood that they shared the same thresholds–the same inexhaustible appetite for wasting time, for discussing lofty ideas, for dissecting trivial things, for driving to nowhere in particular, for listening to music, for talking...

All good and true book-lovers practice the pleasing and improving avocation of reading in bed … No book can be appreciated until it has been slept with and dreamed over.

Humans like stories. Humans need stories. Stories are good. Stories work. Story clarifies and captures the essence of the human spirit. Story, in all its forms—of life, of love, of knowledge—has traced the upward surge...

She did not care very much for other little girls, but if she had plenty of books she could console herself.

…there is a saying used in twelve-step programs and in most treatment centers that “Relapse is part of recovery.” It’s another dangerous slogan that is based on a myth, and it only gives people permission...

I wouldn’t get nearly as many books written if I lived in New York. The Columbia Gorge is fantastic. When the sun shines, I just want to be outdoors.

My books are all fantastically sentimental.

…I tell myself it does not matter what one reads–favorite authors, particular themes–as long as we read something. It is not even important to own the books.

Radical Muslims fly planes into buildings. Radical Christians kill abortion doctors. Radical Atheists write books.

This is no book. Whoever touches this touches a man.

Ah, distinctly I remember it was in the bleak December And each separate dying ember wrought its ghost upon the floor.Eagerly I wished the morrow; — vainly I had sought to borrow From my books...

What I like most about reading is I can read in minutes what it took the author hours to write. What I like most about writing is readers can read in minutes what it took...

The lady who works in the grocery store at the corner of my block is called Denise, and she’s one of America’s great unpublished novelists. Over the years she’s written forty-two romantic novels, none of...

This is the paradox of the power of literature: it seems that only when it is persecuted does it show its true powers, challenging authority, whereas in our permissive society it feels that it is...

Hay cuatro cosas viejas que son buenas: viejos amigos, para conversar; leña vieja, para calentarse; viejos vinos, para beber; y viejos libros para leer.

Sleep is good, he said, And books are better.

I see something of a comrade in you. You like a book. Silent revelation on a page pleases you better than a self-bolstering display of verbal spillage. What do you see in me?

Reader’s Bill of Rights1. The right to not read 2. The right to skip pages 3. The right to not finish 4. The right to reread 5. The right to read anything 6. The right...

To prohibit the reading of certain books is to declare the inhabitants to be either fools or slaves.

I have always been a reader; I have read at every stage of my life, and there has never been a time when reading was not my greatest joy. And yet I cannot pretend that...

I always thought it was Mo Be Dick. I know Mo, and he is a dick.

[I]f a book is well written, I always find it too short.

Books are the ultimate way for writers to reach immortality.

Be passionate about what you write, believe in your ability to convey timeless ideas, and let no one tell you what what you’re capable of.

Although he never speaks of how or what or why, I know that his childhood was difficult, that his parents broke his heart. Books and excess poundage are his insulation against pain.

I tend to come up with people more than situations – most of my books start with a character.

Many people, myself among them, feel better at the mere sight of a book.

Every book is a great action and every great action is a book!

In the end, what makes a book valuable is not the paper it’s printed on, but the thousands of hours of work by dozens of people who are dedicated to creating the best possible reading...

In the library I felt better, words you could trust and look at till you understood them, they couldn’t change half way through a sentence like people, so it was easier to spot a lie.

Do you shovel to survive, or survive to shovel?

Be great, read great books.

The world is swirling with so many mysteries and secrets that nobody will ever track down all of them. But with a book you can stay up very late, reading until all the secrets are...

I had said that Le Guin’s worlds were real because her people were so real, and he said yes, but the people were so real because they were the people the worlds would have produced....

With no reason to hide these words I feel, and no reason to talk about the books I read, but still, I do.

You Don’t Have To Be A Crook To Be Successful!

The more you read,the eager you read many more.

Novels arise out of the shortcoings of history.