Quotes about read
page 12

“Books everywhere. On the shelves and on the small space above the rows of books and all along the floor and under chairs, books that I have read, books that I have not read.”

Edna O'Brien book Country Girl

Source: Country Girl

Books, Reading

“Jane Austen easily used half a page describing someone else's eyes; she would not appreciate summarizing her reading tastes in ten titles.”

Tracy Chevalier (1962) American writer

Reading

“Doughboy," I said. "What is this scroll?"
"A spell lost in time!" he pronounced. "Ancient words of tremendous power!"
"Well?" I demanded. "Does it tell how to defeat Set?"
"Better! The title reads: The Book of Summoning Fruit Bats!”

Rick Riordan book The Red Pyramid

Source: The Red Pyramid

Books, Time, Reading

“I drank coffee and read old books and waited for the year to end.”

Richard Brautigan book Trout Fishing in America

Source: Trout Fishing in America

Books, Coffee, Waiting, Reading

“Um, sorry. I cant read the last line."
"Fish. Have you stolen any fish from the holy lakes?"
"I lived in Kansas.. So.. no”

Rick Riordan (1964) American writer

Fish, Reading

“Reading has always been the largest and most irreplaceable pleasure for Vincent; reading about other people's successes and failures, joys and sufferings seemed to bury his own failures.”

Irving Stone book Lust for Life

Source: Lust for Life

People, Pleasure, Failure, Suffering

“Lately, I feel like my life is a book written in a language I don't know how to read.”

Brandon Sanderson (1975) American fantasy writer

Source: The Hero of Ages

Life, Books, Feeling, Reading

“Nobody reads a book to get to the middle.”

Mickey Spillane (1918–2006) American writer

Books, Reading

“Built like an oak tree, against which I could pitch my pillow and read; mornings, I could curl into the crook of your branches.”

Lionel Shriver book We Need to Talk About Kevin

Source: We Need to Talk About Kevin

Tree, Reading

“No; that doesn't interest me.'
'That's because you never read a book about it.”

Ernest Hemingway book The Sun Also Rises

Source: The Sun Also Rises

Books, Reading

“Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day.”

Thornton Wilder (1897–1975) American playwright and novelist

Reading

“You can't be real," Delilah murmurs.
"Says who?" I ask. "Did you really think that a story exists only when you're reading it?”

Jodi Picoult (1966) Author

Source: Between the Lines

Thinking, Reading

“Strange, i thought i knew you well, thought i had read the sky, thought i had seen a change in your eyes.”

Tori Amos (1963) American singer

Change, Reading

“A couple of times he called the second he'd finished reading a novel and just had to tell me about it, and I know it sounds hokey and librarianish to say so, but I just swooned when he did that.”

Sarah Vowell book Take the Cannoli

Source: Take the Cannoli

Time, Reading

“Reading enables me to maintain a sense of something substantive– my ethical integrity, my intellectual integrity.”

Jonathan Franzen book How to Be Alone

Source: How to Be Alone

Sense, Reading

“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.”

Jeanette Winterson book Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Source: Oranges Are Not the Only Fruit

Reading

“All reading is good reading. And all reading of Jane Austen and Charles Dickens is sublime reading.”

Anna Quindlen (1952) journalist, Novelist

Reading

“The artist doesn't have time to listen to the critics. The ones who want to be writers read the reviews, the ones who want to write don't have the time to read reviews.”

William Faulkner (1897–1962) American writer

Paris Review interview (1958)

Time, Reading

“This life is slow suicide, unless you read.”

Herman Wouk book The Caine Mutiny

Source: The Caine Mutiny

Life, Suicide, Reading

“It's strange to describe reading a book as a really great experience, but that's kind of how it felt.”

Stephen Chbosky book The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Source: The Perks of Being a Wallflower

Books, Reading

“I must read.
I must read.
I must read.”

Mark Z. Danielewski book House of Leaves

Source: House of Leaves

Reading

“Reading is like looking through several windows which open to an infinite landscape…. For me life without reading would be like being in prison, it would be as if my spirit were in a straightjacket; life would be a very dark and narrow place.”

Isabel Allende (1942) Chilean writer

Life, Reading

“I'd once read somewhere that is takes about half as long to recover from a deep relationship as the relationship lasted.”

Cate Tiernan (1961) American novelist

Source: Sweep: Volume 1

Reading

“I've developed a great reputation for wisdom by ordering more books than I ever had time to read, and reading more books, by far, than I learned anything useful from, except, of course, that some very tedious gentlemen have written books.”

Marilynne Robinson Gilead

Source: Gilead

Wisdom, Books, Learning, Time

“Reading is an intelligent way of not having to think.”

Walter Moers book The City of Dreaming Books

Source: The City of Dreaming Books

Way, Intelligence, Thinking, Reading

“Education must be a lifelong pursuit. The person who doesn't read is not better off than the person who can't.”

Sean Covey (1964) author; business executive

Source: The 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens: The Ultimate Teenage Success Guide

Education, Reading, Personality

“When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature. If I were a young person today, trying to gain a sense of myself in the world, I would do that again by reading, just as I did when I was young.”

Maya Angelou (1928–2014) American author and poet

Life, World, Literature, Sense

“You know you've read a good book when you turn the last page and feel a little as if you have lost a friend.”

Paul Sweeney (1989) Scottish politician

Books, Feeling, Reading

“I can always tell when you're reading somewhere in the house,' my mother used to say. 'There's a special silence, a reading silence.”

Francis Spufford (1964) British writer

Source: The Child That Books Built: A Life in Reading

Silence, Reading, Housing

“Let children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents and kids can talk together, we won't have as much censorship because we won't have as much fear.”

Judy Blume (1938) American children's writer

As quoted in Good Advice (1993) by William Safire, p. 125

Children, Fear, Parent, Reading

“I suddenly had a little epiphany: all the books we own, both read and unread, are the fullest expression of self we have at our disposal.”

Nick Hornby book The Polysyllabic Spree

Source: The Polysyllabic Spree

Books, Reading

“We read to know we're not alone.”

William Nicholson movie Shadowlands

Variant: We read to know that we are not alone.
Source: Shadowlands (1993)

Reading

“Reading is a private pursuit; one that takes place behind closed doors.”

Siri Hustvedt book The Summer Without Men

Source: The Summer Without Men

Reading

“Michael had once read to her how God had cast a man and woman out of paradise. Yet, for all their human faults and failures. God had shown them the way back in.”

Francine Rivers (1947) American writer

Source: Redeeming Love

God, Way, Failure, Reading

“Wet towel under the door,' said Barry. 'It's what you do when you're smoking weed in a hotel and you don't want everyone calling security. You're always supposed to have a towel. I read about it in a guide for hitchhiking through the galaxy.”

Christopher Moore (1957) American writer of comic fantasy

Source: Bite Me

Reading

“No book, however good, can survive a hostile reading.”

Orson Scott Card book Ender's Game

Source: Ender's Game

Hostility, Books, Reading

“Perhaps there are other bits of my life that would take on content, take on shadow, if only I read more and thought less about money.”

Martin Amis book Money

Source: Money

Life, Money, Reading

“The book that I shall make people read is the book of the heart, which holds the key to the mystery of life.”

Meher Baba (1894–1969) Indian mystic

Part of his public message upon arrival on his second visit to America (19 May 1932).
General sources

Life, People, Books, Reading

“The things that the novel does not say are necessarily more numerous than those it does say and only a special halo around what is written can give the illusion that you are reading also what is not written.”

Italo Calvino (1923–1985) Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels

Reading

“The woman said something to Roman. He stopped, turned to her, and shook his staff.
She crossed her arms. I couldn't see her face, but I read the body language well enough.”

Ilona Andrews American husband-and-wife novelist duo

Source: Magic Breaks

Reading

“Don't just read words,' he would tell her as he held up the latest story, 'devour them. Let the words create new worlds.”

Janette Rallison (1966) American writer

Source: My Unfair Godmother

World, Reading

“She read books quickly and compulsively, paperback after paperback, as if she might drift away without the anchor of the printed page.”

Jane Hamilton (1957) American novelist

Books, Reading

“Reading usually precedes writing. And the impulse to write is almost always fired by reading. Reading, the love of reading, is what makes you dream of becoming a writer.”

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

Love, Dreams, Reading

“Read the heart and not the letter for the pen cannot draw near the good intent.”

Michelangelo Buonarroti (1475–1564) Italian sculptor, painter, architect and poet

Reading, Heart, Drawing

“The way I see it, anyone who's proud of their country is either a thug or just hasn't read enough history yet.”

Richard K. Morgan (1965) British writer

Source: Thirteen

Way, History, Reading, Country

“Writing and reading decrease our sense of isolation. They deepen and widen and expand our sense of life: they feed the soul.”

Anne Lamott (1954) Novelist, essayist, memoirist, activist

Source: Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life

Life, Soul, Sense, Reading

“It is only by struggling with difficult books, books over one's head, that anyone learns to read.”

Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001) American philosopher and educator

Source: Reforming Education: The Opening of the American Mind (1990), p. 315

Books, Learning, Reading

“He was someone whom everyone admired and liked but whom nobody knew. He was like a book that you could feel good holding, that you could talk about without ever having read, that you could recommend.”

Jonathan Safran Foer book Everything Is Illuminated

Source: Everything Is Illuminated

Books, Feeling, Reading

“But I kept it to myself--maybe because I didn't think it mattered, but probably because, in a place where everyone knew my story, it was nice to know there was a chapter that only I had read.”

Ally Carter I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Source: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Thinking, Reading

“The wise man reads both books and life itself.”

Lin Yutang book The Importance of Living

Source: The Importance of Living (1937), p. 388

Life, Books, Reading

“For all the books in his possession, he still failed to read the stories written plain as day in the faces of the people around him.”

Emma Donoghue (1969) Irish novelist, playwright, short-story writer and historian

Source: Slammerkin

People, Books, Reading

“I'm done. I'm going to go to bed and read important books about theater."
"It would would be easier if you just said porn," Scarlett said.
"No idea what you're talking about. But knock first if you need me.”

Maureen Johnson (1973) writer from the USA

Source: Suite Scarlett

Books, Idea, Reading

“A writer should read until he is filled to the brim and like a pitcher which is over-filled over flows. And then he should write.”

Charles Nodier (1780–1844) French author

Reading

“One reads books in order to gain the privilege of living more than one life….”

Garrison Keillor (1942) American radio host and writer

Life, Books, Reading

“Frey was the god of spring and summer! read the caption. He was the god of wealth, abundance, and fertility. His twin sister, Freya, the goddess of love, was very pretty! She had cats!”

Rick Riordan book The Sword of Summer

Source: The Sword of Summer

Love, God, Spring, Cats

“All mountain landscapes hold stories: the ones we read, the ones we dream, and the ones we create.
-from the Editor's Note, The Alpinist (April 1, 2010)”

George Michael Sinclair Kennedy (1926–2014) British historian

Dreams, Mountain, Reading

“She looks honestly upset, but then, I’ve learned that I can’t read her. The problem with a really excellent liar is that you have to just assume they’re always lying.”

Holly Black book Black Heart

Source: Black Heart

Lying, Problem, Learning, Reading

“The book smelled dusty and old but also carried a sweet tang, a hint of something inviting. She opened to the first page and started to read, pronouncing the words in a reverent whisper.”

Shannon Hale (1974) American fantasy novelist

Books, Reading

“Read everything. Read fiction and non-fiction, read hot best sellers and the classics you never got around to in college.”

Jennifer Weiner (1970) American writer

Reading

“There is this idea that you either read to escape or you read to find yourself.”

Matt Haig book Reasons to Stay Alive

Variant: There is this idea that you either read to escape or you read to find yourself. I don't really see the difference.
Source: Reasons to Stay Alive

Idea, Reading

“our lives change in two ways :through the people we meet and the books we read”

Harvey Mackay (1932) American businessman and journalist

People, Books, Way, Change

“Language is like a road, it cannot be perceived all at once because it unfolds in time, whether heard or read. This narrative or temporal element has made writing and walking resemble each other.”

Rebecca Solnit (1961) Author and essayist from United States

Source: Wanderlust: A History of Walking

Time, Reading

“Any room in our house at any time in the day was there to read in or to be read to.”

Eudora Welty (1909–2001) American author

Time, Reading, Housing

“I do not take a single newspaper, nor read one a month, and I feel myself infinitely the happier for it.”

Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America

Feeling, Reading

“All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they really happened and after you are finished reading one you feel that it all happened to you and after which it all belongs to you.”

Ernest Hemingway (1899–1961) American author and journalist

A Letter from Cuba (1934)
Context: All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was.
Context: All good books are alike in that they are truer than if they had really happened and after you are finished reading one you will feel that all that happened to you and afterwards it all belongs to you; the good and the bad, the ecstasy, the remorse, and sorrow, the people and the places and how the weather was. If you can get so that you can give that to people, then you are a writer.

Books, Feeling, Reading

“What are you reading?" Owen asks.
"Charlotte's Web," Liz says. "It's really sad. One of the main characters just died."
"You ought to read the book from end to beginning," Owen jokes. "That way, no one dies, and it's always a happy ending.”

Gabrielle Zevin book Elsewhere

Source: Elsewhere

Happiness, Books, Sadness, Way

“Your reality, isn’t restricted by this cell we live in. If you read something, if you study something, you transcend any cell you’re inside of”

Manuel Puig (1932–1990) Argentine author and screenwriter

Reality, Study, Reading

“You learned this,” Kabsal said, lifting up her drawing of Jasnah, “from a book.”
“Er…yes?”
He looked back at the picture. “I need to read more.”

Brandon Sanderson book The Way of Kings

Source: The Way of Kings

Books, Learning, Reading, Drawing

“Anxiety, the next gumption trap, is sort of the opposite of ego. You're so sure you'll do everything wrong you're afraid to do anything at all. Often this, rather than "laziness," is the real reason you find it hard to get started. This gumption trap of anxiety, which results from over-motivation, can lead to all kinds of errors of excessive fussiness. You fix things that don't need fixing, and chase after imaginary ailments. You jump to wild conclusions and build all kinds of errors into the machine because of your own nervousness. These errors, when made, tend to confirm your original underestimation of yourself. This leads to more errors, which lead to more underestimation, in a self-stoking cycle. The best way to break this cycle, I think, is to work out your anxieties on paper. Read every book and magazine you can on the subject. Your anxiety makes this easy and the more you read the more you calm down.”

Robert M. Pirsig book Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance

Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance (1974), Ch. 26
Source: Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry Into Values

Books, Way, Error, Motivation

“I am Envy… I cannot read and therefore wish all books burned.”

Christopher Marlowe (1564–1593) English dramatist, poet and translator

Books, Reading, Envy

“Who or what inspires you?"
"I must admit that I often read my own articles in scientific journals and inspire myself.”

Eoin Colfer book The Artemis Fowl Files

Source: The Artemis Fowl Files

Reading

“Maybe this is why we read, and why in moments of darkness we return to books: to find words for what we already know.”

Alberto Manguel (1948) writer

Source: A Reading Diary: A Passionate Reader's Reflections on a Year of Books

Books, Reading

“Writing and reading is to me synonymous with existing.”

Gertrude Stein (1874–1946) American art collector and experimental writer of novels, poetry and plays

Reading

“Like a word on a page that you’ve printed and read a million times, that suddenly looks strange or wrong, foreign. And you feel scared for a second, like you’ve lost something, even if you’re not sure what it is.”

Sarah Dessen book Just Listen

Source: Just Listen

Feeling, Time, Reading

“Their house had real hard-cover books in it, and you often saw them lying open on the sofa, the words still warm from being read.”

David Sedaris book Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

Variant: Their house had real hardcover books in it, and you often saw them lying open on the sofa, the words still warm from being read.
Source: Let's Explore Diabetes with Owls

Books, Lying, Reading, Housing

“Never trust a man who reads only one book.”

Arturo Pérez-Reverte (1951) Spanish writer and journalist

Source: Purity of Blood

Books, Reading

“A nation becomes what its young people read in their youth. Its ideals are fashioned then, its goals strongly determined.”

James A. Michener (1907–1997) American author

People, Youth, Fashion, Reading

“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.”

Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) German philosopher

"Thinking for Oneself" http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/s/schopenhauer/arthur/essays/chapter8.html <br class="br">Essays

Men, Books, World, Learning

“You know how it is when you're reading a book and falling asleep, you're reading, reading… and all of a sudden you notice your eyes are closed? I'm like that all the time.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

Books, Time, Reading

“I have always been a reader; I have read at every stage of my life, and there has never been a time when reading was not my greatest joy”

Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale

Source: The Thirteenth Tale

Life, Time, Reading, Joy

“Jasnah Kholin's words read.”

Brandon Sanderson book Words of Radiance

Source: Words of Radiance

Reading

“Turn," Liz said, trying not to hide her impatience at being forced to read at non-speed-of-light pace.”

Ally Carter book Only the Good Spy Young

Source: Only the Good Spy Young

Light, Reading, Speed

“There are times when the human face and body can express the yearning of the heart so accurately that you can, as they say, read them like a book. Do not abandon me.”

Diane Setterfield book The Thirteenth Tale

Source: The Thirteenth Tale

Books, Time, Reading, Heart

“If this were a novel, I'd stop reading right now. I'd throw it across the room.”

Gabrielle Zevin (1977) American writer

Source: The Storied Life of A.J. Fikry

Reading

“Poetry is not the most important thing in life… I'd much rather lie in a hot bath reading Agatha Christie and sucking sweets.”

Dylan Thomas (1914–1953) Welsh poet and writer

Life, Lie, Reading

“There's nothing wrong with reading a book you love over and over. When you do, the words get inside you, become a part of you, in a way that words in a book you've read only once can't.”

Gail Carson Levine (1947) American writer

Source: Writing Magic: Creating Stories that Fly

Love, Books, Way, Reading

“Leo's biggest surprise: One look from Jason, and all three of them knew the game plan. When had that happened, that they could read each other so well?”

Rick Riordan book The Lost Hero

Source: The Lost Hero

Game, Reading

“I'm not interested in creating a book that is read once and then placed on the shelf and forgotten. I am very happy when people have worn out my books, or that they're held together by Scotch tape.”

Richard Scarry (1919–1994) author and illustrator from the United States

Happiness, People, Books, Reading

“I am naive enough to read incessantly because I cannot, on my own, get to know enough people profoundly enough.”

Harold Bloom (1930–2019) American literary critic and scholar

People, Reading

“Only now that my son was gone did I realize how much I'd been living for him. When I woke up in the morning it was because he existed, and when I ordered food it was because he existed, and when I wrote my book it was because he existed to read it.”

Nicole Krauss The History of Love

Source: The History of Love

Books, Food, Reading

“.

"Most times, when I'm having sex, I'd rather be reading."
This was, I admit, a strange thing to say on a second date.
I guess I was just giving you a warning.
"Most times when I'm reading," you said, "I'd rather be having sex".”

David Levithan The Lover's Dictionary

Source: The Lover's Dictionary

Sex, Time, Reading

“Censors never go after books unless kids already like them. I don’t even think they know to go after books until they know that children are interested in reading this book, therefore there must be something in it that’s wrong.”

Judy Blume (1938) American children's writer

Children, Books, Thinking, Reading

“We read in bed because reading is halfway between life and dreaming, our own consciousness in someone else's mind.”

Anna Quindlen (1952) journalist, Novelist

Source: How Reading Changed My Life

Life, Dreams, Reading

“One benefit of Summer was that each day we had more light to read by.”

Jeannette Walls book The Glass Castle

Source: The Glass Castle

Light, Reading, Summer

“In a place where everyone knew my story, it was nice to know there was a chapter that ONLY I HAD TO READ. :)”

Ally Carter I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Source: I'd Tell You I Love You, But Then I'd Have to Kill You

Reading

“Only when a book is written out of passion is there much hope of its being read with passion.”

Jean Fritz (1915–2017) American children's writer

Books, Hope, Passion, Reading

“whenever I read a passage that moves me, I transcribe it in my diary, hoping my fingers might learn what excellence feels like.”

David Sedaris (1956) American author

Hope, Feeling, Learning, Reading

“I just got out of the hospital. I was in a speed reading accident. I hit a book mark and flew across the room.”

Steven Wright (1955) American actor and author

Books, Reading, Speed

“Meddling, smug, stupid little…"
"She likes me! They always play hard to get when they like me!"
"No. You do not understand. I could not have done it because I can not read or write.”

Darren Shan Allies of the Night

Source: Allies of the Night

Stupidity, Understanding, Reading

“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you'll go. You’ll miss the best things if you keep your eyes shut.”

Dr. Seuss (1904–1991) American children's writer and illustrator, co-founder of Beginner Books

Variant: The more that you read,
The more things you will know.
The more that you learn,
The more places you’ll go.
Source: I Can Read With My Eyes Shut! (1978)

Learning, Reading

Quotes about read page 12

Quotes about read
page 12