“I can't read fiction without visualizing every scene. The result is it becomes a series of pictures rather than a book.”

“I tend to keep books of art more than anything else now. I'm interested in visual things. And astronomy books. Things you can look at over and over and over again and see something new. … My notions of God and the universe have always been too small. And limited by language. So now I'm looking at picture books. My children say I'm just beginning to enter my dotage: can't read, just looks at picture books.”

“A picture means I know where I was every minute. That's why I take pictures. It's a visual diary.”

“I didn’t want to tell the story of myself, but someone I called myself. If you read yourself as fiction, it’s rather more liberating than reading yourself as fact.”

“It is with the reading of books the same as with looking at pictures; one must, without doubt, without hesitations, with assurance, admire what is beautiful.”

“Every writer wants to be believed. But every writer knows he is spurious; every fiction writer would rather be credible than authentic.”

“I was a bookish kid. I spent long hours in the library reading everything I could find, histories, biographies, science fiction, fantasy, mysteries. I was curious about the world and there’s no better way to find things out than through the pages of a book. Even today if some kid asks me what’s the first step to take to become a doctor, I answer, “Read, read, read.””

“I would rather be a poor man in a garret with plenty of books than a king who did not love reading.”

“The heroes of the books I read, The Lord of the Rings and the Foundation series, always felt a duty to save the world.”

“I picture heaven as a vast library, with unlimited volumes to read. And paintings and statues to examine galore. I picture it as a great doorway to learning… rather than one great dull answer to all our questions”