“The proper act of reading of a poem was not an act of passive submission but one of collaboration with its author.”

“Mental events, it is said, are not passive happenings but the acts of a subject.”

“Disobedience to authority is one of the most natural and healthy acts.”

“Of all the diversions of life, there is none so proper to fill up its empty spaces as the reading of useful and entertaining authors.”

“Oh, the Patriot Act. I read that in its original title, 1984.”

“A book is a collaboration between the one who reads and what is read and, at its best, that coming together is a love story like any other.”

“Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one.”

“He was an enthusiast—enthusiasm is needed for action; calculation never acts—it is a passive principle.”

“When I read, it is not acted literature; but what I write is written acting.”

“Direct action is the insistence, when faced with structures of unjust authority, on acting as if one is already free.”