“Many books require no thought from those who read them, and for a very simple reason; they made no such demand upon those who wrote them.”

“Every book has a soul, the soul of the person who wrote it and the soul of those who read it and dream about it.”

“That individual who reads useful books is no longer on the same plane of thinking as those who neglected them.”

“The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them.”

“Men of learning are those who have read the contents of books. Thinkers, geniuses, and those who have enlightened the world and furthered the race of men, are those who have made direct use of the book of the world.”

“Books can truly change our lives: the lives of those who read them, the lives of those who write them. Readers and writers alike discover things they never knew about the world and about themselves.”

“I consider as lovers of books not those who keep their books hidden in their store-chests and never handle them, but those who, by nightly as well as daily use thumb them, batter them, wear them out, who fill out all the margins with annotations of many kinds, and who prefer the marks of a fault they have erased to a neat copy full of faults.”

“Amy Kofman: Have you read all the books in here?
Derrida: No, only four of them. But I read those very, very carefully.”

“The only reason I read a book is because I cannot see and converse with the man who wrote it.”

“Those who don't read good books have no advantage over those who can't.”