“Books are not lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on shelves!”

— Gilbert Highet

The Immortal Profession: The Joys of Teaching and Learning (1976)
Context: These are not books, lumps of lifeless paper, but minds alive on the shelves. From each of them goes out its own voice, as inaudible as the streams of sound conveyed by electric waves beyond the range of our hearing; and just as the touch of button on our stereo will fill the room with music, so by opening one of these volumes, one can call into range a voice far distant in time and space, and hear it speaking, mind to mind, heart to heart.

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Gilbert Highet7

British academic 1906–1978

Gilbert Highet (1906–1978) British academic

The Immortal Profession: The Joys of Teaching and Learning (1976)

“Knowledge exists in two forms - lifeless, stored in books, and alive, in the consciousness of men. The second form of existence is after all the essential one; the first, indispensable as it may be, occupies only an inferior position.”

Albert Einstein (1879–1955) German-born physicist and founder of the theory of relativity

“If you don't see the book you want on the shelves, write it.”

Beverly Cleary (1916) American writer of children's books

“Genres are mostly useful as a marketing tool, and to help booksellers known where to shelve a book.”

Elizabeth Hand (1957) American writer

"Elizabeth Hand on Mortal Love at HarperCollins (2004)
Context: I never think about genre when I work. I've written fantasy, science fiction, supernatural fiction, and am now working on a suspense novel. Genres are mostly useful as a marketing tool, and to help booksellers known where to shelve a book.