“Every book, remember, is dead until a reader activates it by reading. Every time that you read you are walking among the dead, and, if you are listening, you just might hear prophecies.”
"On Delany the Magician", a foreword to Trouble on Triton (1996) by Samuel R. Delany, and reprinted in Acker's collection Bodies of Work (1996)
Source: Trouble on Triton: An Ambiguous Heterotopia
Context: Every book, remember, is dead until a reader activates it by reading. Every time that you read you are walking among the dead, and, if you are listening, you just might hear prophecies. Aeneas did. Odysseus did. Listen to Delany, a prophet.
Help us to complete the source, original and additional information
Kathy Acker38
American novelist, playwright, essayist, and poet 1947–1997Related quotes
“For every book you buy, you should buy the time to read it.”
Karl Lagerfeld (1933–2019) German fashion designer
“Listen you have to read a book three times before you know it.”
Sherman Alexie book The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
Source: The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian
“A scholar is like a book written in a dead language — it is not every one that can read in it.”
William Hazlitt (1778–1830) English writer
"Common Places," No. 13, The Literary Examiner (September - December 1823)
“After signing it, he added the postscript: By the time you read this, you will already be dead.”
Roger Zelazny book Roadmarks
Source: Roadmarks (1979), Chapter 27 (p. 162)
“Did you read the book or did you just read the words in order?”
Gail Giles (1955) American writer
Source: Right Behind You