BOOK QUOTES V

quotations about books

In reading some books we occupy ourselves chiefly with the thoughts of the author; in perusing others, exclusively with our own.

EDGAR ALLAN POE

"Marginalia"


A book ... should resemble a tranquil lake, in whose glassy surface the varied wonders of the earth and sky are faithfully imaged.

CHRISTIAN NESTELL BOVEE

Intuitions and Summaries of Thought


For out of old fields, as men saith,
Cometh all this new corn from year to year;
And out of old books, in good faith,
Cometh all this new science that men learn.

GEOFFREY CHAUCER

"Parliament of Foules"


I feel that books, just like people, have a destiny. Some invite sorrow, others joy, some both.

ELIE WIESEL

Night


I think a book that is over 400 pages should be split in two. I don't know that there's anything that interesting that can go on for 700 pages. I think that is a little bit indulgent.

CHRIS ABANI

The Boston Globe, Mar. 22, 2014


There is more than one way to burn a book. And the world is full of people running about with lit matches.... Every dimwit editor who sees himself as the source of all dreary blanc-mange plain porridge unleavened literature, licks his guillotine and eyes the neck of any author who dares to speak above a whisper or write above a nursery rhyme.

RAY BRADBURY

Coda


There are men that will make you books, and turn them loose into the world, with as much dispatch as they would do a dish of fritters.

MIGUEL DE CERVANTES

Don Quixote


Books are not seldom talismans and spells.

WILLIAM COWPER

The Task


In perusing the writings of sensible men, we have frequent opportunities of examining our own hearts, and by that means, of attaining a more certain knowledge of ourselves.

WELLINS CALCOTT

Thoughts Moral and Divine


A good book changes for you every few years because you are in a different place in your own life. That's a sign of a good novel. Not only will two different readers get something different but so will a single reader at different points in his life.

ALAN LIGHTMAN

interview, Identity Theory, November 16, 2000


You know, not every good book needs to be a movie, or a television series, or a video game. There's great work in those mediums, of course, but sometimes a book should remain a book. I still believe nothing tells a story with the richness and complexity of a good novel. When people say they think a book would make a good movie, they say this sometimes because, if it worked, they already saw all the images in the movie theatre that is in their brains. And sometimes that is the way it should stay.

CARLOS RUIZ ZAFON

"Carlos Ruiz Zafon's love letter to literature", New Zealand Listener, Mar. 14, 2013


For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.

ANNE LAMOTT

Bird by Bird


I'm much more willing to buy a novel electronically by someone I don't know. Because if halfway through I think, I don't really like this, I can just stop. I can't throw books out, even if I think they're crummy. I feel like I've got to give it to the library. I've got to loan it to somebody, or I keep it on my shelf. It's like a plant.

SUSAN ORLEAN

Newsweek, Jul. 13, 2009


Books were the sustenance of God. And His munitions.

RéGIS DEBRAY

God: An Itinerary


A good novel tells us the truth about its hero; but a bad novel tells us the truth about its author.

G. K. CHESTERTON

Heretics


It had been startling and disappointing to me to find out that story books had been written by people, that books were not natural wonders, coming up of themselves like grass. Yet regardless of where they come from, I cannot remember a time when I was not in love with them -- with the books themselves, cover and binding and the paper they were printed on, with their smell and their weight and with their possession in my arms, captured and carried off to myself.

EUDORA WELTY

One Writer's Beginnings


Give me a man or woman who has read a thousand books and you give me an interesting companion. Give me a man or woman who has read perhaps three and you give me a dangerous enemy indeed.

ANNE RICE

The Witching Hour


The Roman philosopher Seneca the Younger (tutor to Nero) complained that his peers were wasting time and money accumulating too many books, admonishing that "the abundance of books is a distraction." Instead, Seneca recommended focusing on a limited number of good books, to be read thoroughly and repeatedly.

DANIEL J. LEVITIN

The Organized Mind


Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason--they made no such demand upon those who wrote them.

CHARLES CALEB COLTON

Lacon


There are many, many types of books in the world, which makes good sense, because there are many, many types of people, and everybody wants to read something different.

DANIEL HANDLER (as Lemony Snicket)

The Bad Beginning