“My definition of good literature is that which can be read by an educated reader, and reread with increased pleasure.”

“Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader ("Good Readers and Good Writers", p. 3).”

“Most of my reading is rereading.”

“Good literature continually read for pleasure must, let us hope, do some good to the reader: must quicken his perception though dull, and sharpen his discrimination though blunt, and mellow the rawness of his personal opinions.”

“In literature you don't just read one poem or novel after another, but enter into a complete world of which every work of literature forms part. This affects the writer as much as it does the reader.”

“Besides, rereading, not reading, is what counts.”

“In life there are two things which are dependable. The pleasures of the flesh and the pleasures of literature.”

“The educated reader knows, as he reads me, that he is listening to a fugue in four voices.”

“A conventional good read is usually a bad read, a relaxing bath in what we know already. A true good read is surely an act of innovative creation in which we, the readers, become conspirators.”

“Literature is that which he can not read without pain, without choking on truth.”