“Read a lot, listen well and deeply, and write a lot. […] If you read good books, when you write, good books will come out of you.”

“If you read a lot of books, you're considered well-read. But if you watch a lot of TV, you're not considered well-viewed.”

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

“Reading is a conversation. All books talk. But a good book listens as well.”

“It is a general observation that people write as they read. As a rule, careful writers are careful readers and vice versa. A careful writer wants to be read carefully. He cannot know what it means to be read carefully but by having done careful reading himself. Reading precedes writing. We read before we write. We learn to write by reading. A man learns to write well by reading well good books, by reading most carefully books which are most carefully written.”

“Write the book you want to read, the one you cannot find.”

“In this world you either read or write, and writers write out of contempt for their colleagues, out of a desire to have something good to read once in a while.”

“If you are going to get anywhere in life you have to read a lot of books.”

“If you want to be a writer, you must do two things above all others: read a lot and write a lot.”

“F. Shaw: As prolific as you are, how long did it take you to research and write this book?
A. Axelrod: Well over a year. I do my research for one book while I write another—that way I get to read as well as write.”