“if a book isn't self-explanatory, then it isn't worth reading.”
Source: The Zahir
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Paulo Coelho 844
Brazilian lyricist and novelist 1947Related quotes
Source: Introduction to Hawk’s Hill in Marion Zimmer Bradley (ed.), Sword and Sorceress 7 (1990), p. 183
“The problem in our country isn't with books being banned, but with people no longer reading.”
As quoted in "Bradbury Still Believes in Heat of ‘Fahrenheit 451’" http://community.seattletimes.nwsource.com/archive/?date=19930312&slug=1689996, interview by Misha Berson, in ', credited to "Ray Bradbury, quoted by Misha Berson in Seattle Times", in "Quotable Quotes", The Reader's Digest, Vol. 144, No. 861, January 1994, p. 25 http://books.google.com/books?output=html&id=ZqqUAAAAIAAJ&q=%22people+to+stop+reading%22#search_anchor), or an indirect reference to the re-quoting in Reader's Digest (such as: The Times Book of Quotations (Philip Howard, ed.), 2000, Times Books and HarperCollins, p. 93
Variant: We're not teaching kids to read and write and think. … There's no reason to burn books if you don't read them.
As quoted in "At 80, Ray Bradbury Still Fighting the Future He Foresaw" http://www.raybradbury.com/articles_peoria.html, interview by Roger Moore, in The Peoria Journal Star (August 2000)
Context: The problem in our country isn't with books being banned, but with people no longer reading. Look at the magazines, the newspapers around us – it's all junk, all trash, tidbits of news. The average TV ad has 120 images a minute. Everything just falls off your mind. … You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture. Just get people to stop reading them.
“This isn't a diet book. In fact, you may gain 30 pounds just reading it.”
Source: <i>Off the Eaten Path: Second Helpings</i> (2013), p. 7
“Surprising what you can dig out of books if you read long enough, isn't it?”
Rand al'Thor
(15 September 1992)
“It isn't worth it. No money is worth this… [walks out].”
The Findus Foods "Frozen Peas" Session Out-Takes
“Virtue by premeditation isn't worth much.”
H 13
Aphorisms (1765-1799), Notebook H (1784-1788)
“I can't hate for long. It isn't worth it.”
The Bicycle Rider In Beverly Hills (1952)
“A verbal contract isn't worth the paper it's written on.”
A misreporting of an actual quote praising the trustworthiness of a colleague: "His verbal contract is worth more than the paper it's written on". The identity of the colleague is variously reported as Joseph M. Schenk in Paul F. Boller, John George, They Never Said It (1990), p. 42, or as Joseph L. Mankiewicz in Carol Easton, The Search for Sam Goldwyn (1976). Goldwyn himself was reportedly aware of - and pleased by - the misattribution.
Misattributed