Quotes about reading

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“Literature is the art of writing something that will be read twice; journalism what will be grasped at once, and they require separate techniques.”

Cyril Connolly book Enemies of Promise

“When you read you can have every adventure. In the pages of a book you can be anyone you ever dreamed of being… They can never tell you you're too young to slay the dragon -- because it all happens right here, where it's safe.”

Janette Oke (1935) Canadian writer

“I can read in red.
I can read in blue.
I can read in pickle color too.”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

“I had walked into that reading-room a happy, healthy man. I crawled out a decrepit wreck.”

Jerome K. Jerome book Three Men in a Boat

“We should read to give our souls a chance to luxuriate.”

Henry Miller (1891–1980) American novelist

“I divide all readers into two classes: those who read to remember and those who read to forget.”

William Lyon Phelps (1865–1943) American author, critic and scholar

“And so he was reading the story as if it were a spell and the words of it, spoken aloud, could make magic happen.”

Kate DiCamillo book The Tale of Despereaux

“i really like reading books”

Dale Carnegie How to Win Friends and Influence People

“What a frightening thing is the human, a mass of gauges and dials and registers, and we can read only a few and those perhaps not accurately.”

John Steinbeck book The Winter of Our Discontent

“The worst thing to do is to die while reading LIFE magazine.”

Bill Cosby (1937) American actor, comedian, author, producer, musician, activist

“I am a bookworm. For play, I bury myself in the corners of libraries and read.”

Robert Littell (1935) American novelist

“This Life is More than Just a read through.”

Anthony Kiedis (1962) American singer

“I don't have a method. All I do is read a lot, think a lot, and rewrite constantly. It's not a scientific thing.”

Gabriel García Márquez (1927–2014) Colombian writer

“No, you've got it all wrong, John." Reading his emotions, she shook her head. "You're not half the male you could be because of what was done to you. You're twice what anyone else is because you survived.”

Jessica Bird (1969) U.S. novelist

“I understood we used to be close. But they were like books i'd read two summer ago; I knew I'd liked them, but I couldn't tell you now what they'd been about.”

Sara Shepard The Lying Game

“He was reading from the beginning so that he could get to the end, where the reader was assured that the knight and the fair maiden lived together happily ever after.”

Kate DiCamillo book The Tale of Despereaux

“The less we read, the more harmful it is what we read.”

Miguel de Unamuno (1864–1936) 19th-20th century Spanish writer and philosopher

“What about confusing clutter? Information overload? Doesn't data have to be "boiled down" and "simplified"? These common questions miss the point, for the quantity of detail is an issue completely separate from the difficulty of reading..”

Edward R. Tufte Envisioning Information

“We read frequently if unknowingly, in quest of a mind more original than our own.”

Harold Bloom (1930–2019) American literary critic and scholar

“if a book isn't self-explanatory, then it isn't worth reading.”

Paulo Coelho book The Zahir

“Read and find out.”

Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer

“If contemporary literary fiction doesn't read a bit like science fiction then it's probably not all that contemporary, is it”

Warren Ellis (1968) English comics and fiction writer

“A good book should leave you…. slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading it.”

William Styron (1925–2006) American novelist and essayist

“Woke up this morning with a terrific urge to lie in bed all day and read.”

Raymond Carver (1938–1988) American short story author and poet

“Nor did I make any distinctions between great literature and any other kind. I just liked reading.”

Margaret Atwood (1939) Canadian writer

“This one looks good,” said Chong over breakfast the next morning.
Benny read out loud from the paper. “‘Pit Thrower.’ What’s that?”
“I don’t know,” Chong said with a mouth full of toast. “I think it has something to do with barbecuing.”
It didn’t.”

Jonathan Maberry book Rot & Ruin

“All that was missing was a neon sign that read EVIL AND CONFLICTED ABOUT IT with a flashing arrow pointing at his head.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

“Tessa was laying on her side, her brown hair spread over the pillow, watching Will, whose face was bent over the pages, with a look of tenderness in her eyes, a tenderness mirrored in the softness of Will's voice as he read.”

Cassandra Clare book Clockwork Princess

“If you can get yourself to read 30 minutes a day, you're going to double your income every year.”

Brian Tracy (1944) American motivational speaker and writer

“I shall keep my book on the table here, and read a little every morning as soon as I wake, for I know it will do me good, and help me through the day.”

Louisa May Alcott (1832–1888) American novelist

“Reading maketh a full man, conference a ready man, and writing an exact man.”

Francis Bacon book Essays

“No fiction is worth reading except for entertainment. If it entertains and is clean, it is good literature, or its kind. If it forms the habit of reading, in people who might not read otherwise, it is the best literature.”

Edgar Rice Burroughs (1875–1950) American writer

“I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.”

T.S. Eliot (1888–1965) 20th century English author

“Books must be read as deliberately and reservedly as they were written.”

Henry David Thoreau book Walden ou la vie dans les bois

“You have a tendency, Hastings, to prefer the least likely. That, no doubt, is from reading too many detective stories.”

Agatha Christie book Peril at End House

“She wondered if literature might lose some of its interest when she reached an age or state of mind where her life was set on such a sure course that the things she read might stop seeming so powerfully like alternate directions for her being.”

Charles Frazier book Cold Mountain

“Better to work for yourself alone. You do as you like and follow your own ideas, you admire yourself and please yourself: isn’t that the main thing? And then the public is so stupid. Besides, who reads? And what do they read? And what do they admire?”

Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880) French writer (1821–1880)

“You see, one of the best things about reading is that you'll always have something to think about when you're not reading.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

“Thank you for sending me a copy of your book. I'll waste no time reading it.”

Moses Hadas (1900–1966) American classical philologist

“I plan to learn enough to read you like a book.”

Sylvia Brownrigg (1964) American writer

“Reading well is one of the great pleasures that solitude can afford you.”

Harold Bloom (1930–2019) American literary critic and scholar

“My bullshit meter is reading that as 'false'.”

Charlaine Harris book Dead as a Doornail

“Personally, I am a hedonistic reader; I have never read a book merely because it was ancient. I read books for the aesthetic emotions they offer me, and I ignore the commentaries and criticism.”

Jorge Luis Borges book Seven Nights

“How do you know that you are not part of a book? That someone's not reading your story right now?”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

“The reading of all good books is indeed like a conversation with the noblest men of past centuries who were the authors of them, nay a carefully studied conversation, in which they reveal to us none but the best of their thoughts.”

René Descartes (1596–1650) French philosopher, mathematician, and scientist

“My negotiation skills are are on par with George Bush's reading ability. And just like Dubya, every time I've tried to put forth an effort, I am reminded that my only true strength lies in drinking.”

Chelsea Handler book Are You There, Vodka? It's Me, Chelsea

“I am, when you stop to think of it, a member of a fairly select group: the final handful of American novelists who learned to read and write before they learned to eat a daily helping of video bullshit.”

Stephen King (1947) American author

“In your reading, find books to improve your color sense, your sense of shape and size in the world.”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

“I often find myself in situations where it seems to me like everyone else has read the instruction book”

Jeff Lindsay book Dearly Devoted Dexter

“She has spent most of the day reading and is feeling rather out of touch with reality, as if her own life has become insubstantial in the face of the fiction she's been absorbed in.”

Maggie O'Farrell (1972) British writer

“Reading is like breathing. If you take it away, first I become antsy, then violent.”

Robert Jordan (1948–2007) American writer

“Have you ever given someone a book you enjoyed enormously, with a feeling of envy because they were about to read it for the first time, an experience you could never have again?”

Jack Finney book Time and Again

“But usually, I watched Linda read. I couldn't believe she'd read so much in summer! Sometimes she laughed, reading her book, and one time she even cried. I didn't know how anyone could make such a big deal about books.”

Alex Flinn book Beastly

“What's the point of having a library full of books you've already read?”

Ray Bradbury (1920–2012) American writer

“Teach a child to read and he/she will pass a literary test.”

George W. Bush (1946) 43rd President of the United States

“He pinched the name tag and ran his fingers under the letters. "Can you read this, mate? It says C-H-A-R-O-N. Say it with me: CARE-ON."
"Charon."
"Amazing! Now: Mr. Charon."
"Mr. Charon."
"Well done.”

Rick Riordan book The Lightning Thief

“There's always time to read. Don't trust a writer who doesn't read. It's like eating food prepared by a cook who doesn't eat.”

Laura Lippman (1959) Detective fiction writer

“When you steal from the library, you are preventing anyone else from reading that book, and the very notion makes me want to drop you in the Void.”

Piers Anthony Golem in the Gears

“Movement never lies. It is a barometer telling the state of the soul's weather to all who can read it.”

Martha Graham (1894–1991) American dancer and choreographer

“Having the freedom to read and the freedom to choose is one of the best gifts my parents ever gave me.”

Judy Blume (1938) American children's writer

“Read not the Times, read the Eternities.”

Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist

“perhaps because this time not fear but love made him read.”

Cornelia Funke Inkheart trilogy

“I know because I read… Your mind is not a cage. It's a garden. And it requires cultivating.”

Libba Bray (1964) American teen writer

“That girl will rain destruction down on you and your ship. She is an albatross, Captain.

Way I remember it, albatross was a ship's good luck, 'til some idiot killed it. (to Inara) Yes, I've read a poem. Try not to faint.”

Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film

“I fix myself a hot chocolate because it is a gateway drug to reading.”

Helen Ellis (1950) American writer

“What is this obsession people have with books? They put them in their houses like they're trophies. What do you need it for after you read it?”

Jerry Seinfeld (1954) American comedian and actor

“Congratulations. The fact that you're reading this means you've taken one giant step closer to surviving until your next birthday.”

James Patterson (1947) American author

“Reading is untidy, discursive and perpetually inviting.”

Alan Bennett book The Uncommon Reader

“When one reads these strange pages of one long gone one feels that one is at one with one who once…”

James Joyce Ulysses

“Today each of you is the object of the other’s reading, one reads in the other the unwritten story.”

Italo Calvino (1923–1985) Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels

“Noah, wherever you are and whenever you read this, I love you. I
love you deeply, my husband. You are, and always have been, my
dream.
Allie”

Nicholas Sparks book The Notebook

“Take your Bible and take your newspaper, and read both. But interpret newspapers from your Bible.”

Karl Barth (1886–1968) Swiss Protestant theologian

“I usually read the obituaries first as there is always the happy chance that one of them will make my day.”

Robert A. Heinlein book The Cat Who Walks Through Walls

“Her reputation for reading a great deal hung about her like the cloudy envelope of a goddess in an epic.”

Henry James book The Portrait of a Lady

“There are three things that grow more precious with age; old wood to burn, old books to read, and old friends to enjoy.”

Henry Ford (1863–1947) American industrialist

“Reading is not just an escape. It is access to a better way of life.”

Karin Slaughter (1971) US-american crime writer

“At first I was glad for the help. My freshmen English class, "Mythology and Archetypal Experience," confounded me.

I didn't understand why we couldn't just read books without forcing contorted interpretations on then”

Alison Bechdel (1960) American cartoonist, author

“But as I pursued that dream of upward mobility preparing for college, things just didn't fit together. As I read Scriptures about how the last will be first, I started wondering why I was working so hard to be first.”

Shane Claiborne The Irresistible Revolution

“Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting.”

Edmund Burke (1729–1797) Anglo-Irish statesman

“In times of storm and tempest, of indecision and desolation, a book already known and loved makes better reading than something new and untried… nothing is so warming and companionable.”

Elizabeth Goudge (1900–1984) English fiction writer

“Oh! And they read English novels! David! Did you ever look into an English novel? Well, do not trouble yourself. It is nothing but a lot of nonsense about girls with fanciful names getting married.”

Susanna Clarke book Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell

“One reads books in order to gain the privilege of living more than one life. People who don't read are trapped in a mine shaft, even if they think the sun is shining.”

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

“You have to remember that it is impossible to commit a crime while reading a book.”

John Waters (1946) American filmmaker, actor, comedian and writer

“Hearth signed, 'is it talking? I don't read sword lips.'"
'what is he saying?' Jack asked. 'I don't read elf hands”

Rick Riordan book The Sword of Summer

“… he’s infuriated that his e-reader allows him to only know theof a book he’s read, not the number of pages. This, he thinks, is 92 percent stupid.”

Meg Wolitzer book The Interestings

“And so our mothers and grandmothers have, more often than not anonymously, handed on the creative spark, the seed of the flower they themselves never hoped to see - or like a sealed letter they could not plainly read.”

Alice Walker (1944) American author and activist

“Collect books, even if you don't plan on reading them right away. Nothing is more important than an unread library.”

John Waters (1946) American filmmaker, actor, comedian and writer

“It was like we were exchanging codes, on how to be a father and a daughter, like we'd read about it in a manual, translated from another language, and were doing our best with what we could understand.”

Aimee Bender (1969) Novelist, short story writer

“All good and true book-lovers practice the pleasing and improving avocation of reading in bed… No book can be appreciated until it has been slept with and dreamed over.”

Eugene Field (1850–1895) American writer

“great writers are indecent people
they live unfairly
saving the best part for paper.

good human beings save the world
so that bastards like me can keep creating art,
become immortal.
if you read this after I am dead
it means I made it.”

Charles Bukowski book The People Look Like Flowers at Last

“You've been reading Gordan's book again, haven't you?"
"It's a white-knuckle roller-coaster ride," she mumbled.”

Derek Landy (1974) Irish children's writer

“Read everything and be kind.”

Penn Jillette (1955) American magician

“A mind is like a puzzle; you must unlock it to read its hidden secrets.”

Melissa de la Cruz book Masquerade

“You learn to write by writing, and by reading and thinking about how writers have created their characters and invented their stories. If you are not a reader, don't even think about being a writer.”

Jean M. Auel (1936) Novelist

“It's a blessing Madame Gamache and I had at our wedding. It was read at the end of the ceremony.(Apache Blessing)”

Louise Penny book Bury Your Dead

“So much working, reading, thinking, living to do! A lifetime is not long enough.”

Sylvia Plath (1932–1963) American poet, novelist and short story writer

“When you're unhappy, I guess everything in the world - reading, eating, sleeping - has something buried somewhere inside it that just makes you unhappier.”

Nick Hornby book A Long Way Down

“Fascination with horses predated every other single thing I knew. Before I was a mother, before I was a writer, before I knew the facts of life, before I was a schoolgirl, before I learned to read, I wanted a horse.”

Jane Smiley (1949) American novelist

“It's only adults who read the top layers most of the time. I think children read the internal meanings of everything.”

Maurice Sendak (1928–2012) American illustrator and writer of children's books