“Your whole life you are really writing one book, which is an attempt to grasp the consciousness of your time and place– a single book written from different stages of your ability.”

“When you read a book as a child, it becomes a part of your identity in a way that no other reading in your whole life does.”

Nora Ephron (1941–2012) Film director, author screenwriter

“What's crazy is living your life according to some book written by someone who couldn't imagine what your life would be like.”

James Frey book The Final Testament of the Holy Bible

“It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.”

Arthur Conan Doyle (1859–1930) Scottish physician and author

“And each book has to receive your best effort every single time. No slacking.”

Nora Roberts (1950) American romance writer

“You don't put your life into your books, you find it there.”

Alan Bennett book The Uncommon Reader

“You will want a book which contains not man's thoughts, but God's — not a book that may amuse you, but a book that can save you — not even a book that can instruct you, but a book on which you can venture an eternity — not only a book which can give relief to your spirit, but redemption to your soul — a book which contains salvation, and conveys it to you, one which shall at once be the Saviour's book and the sinner's.”

John Selden (1584–1654) English jurist and scholar of England's ancient laws and constitution, and of Jewish law

“I was twenty then. What the hell, I used to say, take your time, Bandini. You got ten years to write a book, so take it easy, get out and learn about life, walk the streets. That’s your trouble: your ignorance of life.”

John Fante book Ask the Dust

“In the end all books are written for your friends. The problem after writing One Hundred Years of Solitude was that now I no longer know whom of the millions of readers I am writing for; this upsets and inhibits me. It's like a million eyes are looking at you and you don't really know what they think.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

“If you merely read this book you will not reach the Way of strategy. Absorb the things written in this book. Do not just read, memorise or imitate, but so that you realise the principle from within your own heart study hard to absorb these things into your body.”

Miyamoto Musashi (1584–1645) Japanese martial artist, writer, artist