“This is a book and a body that is so warm to the touch. My touch.”

“This is no book. Whoever touches this touches a man.”

Ezra Pound (1885–1972) American Imagist poet and critic

“I have touched filth.

Only with the finger tip I touched it,

inquisitive of the taste of it.

But it creeps.

It has spread over my body a slime,

and into my soul a stupor (…)”

Olaf Stapledon book Last Men in London

“So here's my demonstration
A peep show
Tonight my body's an exhibition baby
Though it's on display don't be scared to
Touch It, It said so
So come and get it babe”

Janet Jackson (1966) singer from the United States

“If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry.”

Emily Dickinson (1830–1886) American poet

“In the green water, clear and warm,
Susanna lay.
She searched
The touch of springs,
And found
Concealed imaginings.
She sighed,
For so much melody.”

Wallace Stevens (1879–1955) American poet

“I have my books
And my poetry to protect me;
I am shielded in my armor,
Hiding in my room, safe within my womb.
I touch no one and no one touches me.
I am a rock,
I am an island.”

Paul Simon (1941) American musician, songwriter and producer

“I am standing up at the water's edge in my dream
I cannot make a single sound as you scream.
It can't be that cold, the ground is still warm to touch.
This place is so quiet, sensing that storm.”

Peter Gabriel (1950) English singer-songwriter, record producer and humanitarian

“A book,
a book full
of human touches,
of shirts,
a book
without loneliness, with men
and tools,
a book
is victory.”

Pablo Neruda (1904–1973) Chilean poet

“You have an incredible body." He reaches out to touch my stomach. I feel no pleasure in his compliment or his touch, only impatience. This is the only feeling. I feel like the paper on which my mood chart is printed.”

Augusten Burroughs book Dry