“Academic education is the act of memorizing things read in books, and things told by college professors who got their education mostly by memorizing things read in books.”

“She reads a lot of books. Good things, books.”

“Books give us the ability to see things from different perspectives. They educate us, entertain us, force us to think upon certain issues. And reading a book or reading, in general, is an excuse for those who are less sociable like me for not socialising much. And guess what, it works most of the times.”

“Teenagers read millions of books every year. They read for entertainment and for education. They read because of school assignments and pop culture fads.”

“There is no such thing as a child who hates to read; there are only children who have not found the right book.”

“I meet people who tell me things like, ‘I read your book in two days’. Please don’t do that. These things take me years to write. Slow down. Everything you read, slow down. Reading is our great act of resistance in this age of speed and carelessness.”

“Unlike many of my contemporaries, I never write books for my fellow professors to read. I have no interest in the academic audience at all. I'm interested in Joe Doakes. A general audience can read any book I write – and they do.”

“Dullard: Someone who looks up a thing in the encyclopedia, turns directly to the entry, reads it, and then closes the book.”

“There were things to do, people to see, questions to ask. Books to read.”

“The educated don't get that way by memorizing facts; they get that way by respecting them.”