Just knowing that they could read made the Baudelaire orphans feel as if their wretched lives could be a little brighter.

The nicest notes I’ve received from readers are those that tell me I’ve gotten them back into reading for entertainment. For me, there is no greater compliment.

Finally, from so little sleeping and so much reading, his brain dried up and he went completely out of his mind.

No time spent with a book is ever entirely wasted, even if the experience is not a happy one: there’s always something to be learned. It’s just that, every now and again, you hit a...

In short, we can only learn from our “betters”.

A well-read woman is a dangerous creature.

Miss Lasqueti consumed mostly crime thrillers, which constantly seemed to disappoint her. I suspect that for her the world was more accidental than any book’s plot. Twice I saw her so irritated by a mystery...

What we readers do each time we open a book is to set up on a search for authenticity. We want to get closer to the heart of things, and sometimes even a few good...

To be original is not creating your own idea; it’s the essence of the idea in the reader’s mind.

If you think of religion as something that offers a picture of something more grand than us, reading does the same thing. Reading enables us to lift ourselves from our current situation to something higher...

…the novelist has brought us to that state, in which, as in all purely mental states, every emotion is multiplied tenfold, into which his book comes to disturb us as might a dream, but a...

In Victorian England, people were told they should discourage their wives from reading because it would lead them into all sorts of devilish wickedness.

As we expand our knowledge of good books, we shrink the circle of men whose company we appreciate.

I’m not interested in the reviews by critics over the age of 15.

You are one of us, one of those who knows without knowing, and one who will live and die in dreams that blend with this world. No, I am no gypsy, just one who has...

There is an exuberance in good fantasy quite unlike the most exalted moments of realistic fiction. Both forms have similar goals; but realism walks where fantasy dances.

I can’t stand reading anything that I’ve said.

We need our children to get onto the reading ladder: anything that they enjoy reading will move them up, rung by rung, into literacy. (Also, do not do what this author did when his 11-year-old...

I love books, by the way, way more than movies. Movies tell you what to think. A good book lets you choose a few thoughts for yourself. Movies show you the pink house. A good...

Perhaps they were looking for passion; perhaps they delved into this book as into a mysterious parcel – a gift box at the bottom of which, hidden in layers of rustling tissue paper, lay something...

A reader can never tell if it’s a real thimble or an imaginary thimble, because by the time you’re reading it, they’re the same. It’s a thimble. It’s in the book.

Someone once told me people write down stories because they would like to forget, and those who read are those who would like to remember. Maybe I’m not ready to forget, and maybe you’re not...

Sit in a room and read–and read and read. And read the right books by the right people. Your mind is brought onto that level, and you have a nice, mild, slow-burning rapture all the...

Above all things — read. Read the great stylists who cannot be copied rather than the successful writers who must not be copied.

Reading…inspires,enlightens,nurtures,refines,educates,informs,transforms,persuades,challenges,engages, entertains,mesmerizes,captivates,gratifies,rewards,quiets,and calms.Granted, it won’t get the dishes done,but sacrifices must be made.

Perhaps this is why one reads fiction to begin with – to live a more interesting reality than one’s daily life.

I did realize, as do you, how blessed I was to know bookjoy, the private pleasure of savoring text.

Pavasaris pats yra kaip neskaityta knyga. Kiekviena diena – tai naujas puslapis, kuriame parašyta tiek įdomaus, tiek neregėto, tiek negirdėto, ir negali net trumpam užmerkti akių, nes liksi ko nors nepamatęs: paukščio, žiedo, sprogstančio lapo,...

I leapt eagerly into books. The characters’ lives were so much more interesting than the lonely heartbeat of my own.

For some reason, when people meet me and find out I’m a writer they always ask if I write children’s books. Um… please don’t let your kids read my books. Well, unless your kids are...

I’ve been very influenced by folklore, fairy tales, and folk ballads, so I love all the classic works based on these things — like George Macdonald’s 19th century fairy stories, the fairy poetry of W.B....

a happy birthdaythis evening, I sat by an open windowand read till the light was gone and the bookwas no more than a part of the darkness.I could easily have switched on a lamp,but I...

He that reads and grows no wiser seldom suspects his own deficiency, but complains of hard words and obscure sentences, and asks why books are written which cannot be understood.

One must be an inventor to read well. There is then creative reading as well as creative writing.

I don’t think anybody should read anything except for fun because you won’t learn anything unless you enjoy it.

When we unnecessarily elongate the process of “learning to read,” we postpone “reading to learn” – learning itself – by years.

For in those days I had no idea that many of the greatest books are like a forest, and that the best way to get to know them is to wander right into the middle...

If you wish to draw profit, read with humility, simplicity, and faith, and never with the design of gaining a reputation for learning.

A children’s story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children’s story in the slightest.

A dreamer is someone who hopes to comprehend things that others cannot even imagine

Bookish people, who are often maladroit people, persist in thinking they can master any subtlety so long as it’s been shaped into acceptable expository prose.

Parents often ask – how do I get my child interested in books and reading? One tried and true way that my late husband and I used was paying them to read. For each book...

‘You’re there, but the books draw you in to whole other worlds. I mean, I know you study more serious things than the silly stories I read, but when you’re there, you can be anywhere....

I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.

We read to under­stand our intu­ition of the world, to dis­cover that some­one a thou­sand miles and years away has put into words our most inti­mate desires and our most secret fears. Reading is a...

The use of imaginative fiction is to deepen your understanding of your world, and your fellow men, and your own feelings, and your destiny.

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.

Oh, don’t get me started! I love fantasy, I read it for pleasure, even after all these years. Pat McKillip, Ursula Le Guin and John Crowley are probably my favorite writers in the field, in...

One bright day in the last week of February, I was walking in the park, enjoying the threefold luxury of solitude, a book, and pleasant weather.

Sometimes I think heaven must be one continuous unexhausted reading.