“My definition of good literature is that which can be read by an educated reader, and reread with increased pleasure.”

“Curiously enough, one cannot read a book: one can only reread it. A good reader, a major reader, an active and creative reader is a rereader ("Good Readers and Good Writers", p. 3).”

Vladimir Nabokov book Lectures on Literature

“Most of my reading is rereading.”

Susan Sontag (1933–2004) American writer and filmmaker, professor, and activist

“Good literature continually read for pleasure must, let us hope, do some good to the reader: must quicken his perception though dull, and sharpen his discrimination though blunt, and mellow the rawness of his personal opinions.”

A.E. Housman (1859–1936) English classical scholar and poet

“In literature you don't just read one poem or novel after another, but enter into a complete world of which every work of literature forms part. This affects the writer as much as it does the reader.”

Northrop Frye (1912–1991) Canadian literary critic and literary theorist

“Besides, rereading, not reading, is what counts.”

Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature

“In life there are two things which are dependable. The pleasures of the flesh and the pleasures of literature.”

Sei Shonagon book The Pillow Book

“The educated reader knows, as he reads me, that he is listening to a fugue in four voices.”

Albert Caraco (1919–1971) French-Uruguayan philosopher

“A conventional good read is usually a bad read, a relaxing bath in what we know already. A true good read is surely an act of innovative creation in which we, the readers, become conspirators.”

Malcolm Bradbury (1932–2000) English author and academic

“Literature is that which he can not read without pain, without choking on truth.”

Roland Barthes (1915–1980) French philosopher, critic and literary theorist