Tomie dePaola (1934) American children's illustrator and writer
Quotes about read page 14
“One reads alone, even in another's presence.”
Italo Calvino (1923–1985) Italian journalist and writer of short stories and novels
Source: If on a Winter's Night a Traveler
“By reading so much, my vocabulary automatically improved along with my comprehension.”
Ben Carson book Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story
Source: Gifted Hands: The Ben Carson Story
Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) Argentine short-story writer, essayist, poet and translator, and a key figure in Spanish language literature
Mohsin Hamid book How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia
Source: How to Get Filthy Rich in Rising Asia
Aung San Suu Kyi (1945) State Counsellor of Myanmar and Leader of the National League for Democracy
Opening Keynote Address at NGO Forum on Women, Beijing China (1995)
Context: This year is the International Year for Tolerance. The United Nations has recognized that "tolerance, human rights, democracy and peace are closely related. Without tolerance, the foundations form democracy and respect for human rights cannot be strengthened, and the achievement of peace will remain elusive." My own experience during the years I have been engaged in the democracy movement of Burma has convinced me of the need to emphasize the positive aspect of tolerance. It is not enough simply to "live and let live": genuine tolerance requires an active effort to try to understand the point of view of others; it implies broad-mindedness and vision, as well as confidence in one's own ability to meet new challenges without resorting to intransigence or violence. In societies where men are truly confident of their own worth women are not merely "tolerated", they are valued. Their opinions are listened to with respect, they are given their rightful place in shaping the society in which they live.
“One must be an inventor to read well. There is then creative reading as well as creative writing.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
Variant: There is creative reading as well as creative writing.
Christine Feehan American writer
Source: The Twilight Before Christmas
“If you like not my writing, go read something else.”
Robert Burton book The Anatomy of Melancholy
Source: The Anatomy of Melancholy
“I would like my personal reading map to resemble a map of the British Empire circa 1900.”
Nick Hornby book Housekeeping vs. The Dirt
Source: Housekeeping vs. the Dirt
“[ Woe be to him that reads but one book. ]”
George Herbert (1593–1633) Welsh-born English poet, orator and Anglican priest
Jacula Prudentum (1651)
George Steiner (1929–2020) American writer
Preface.
Language and Silence: Essays 1958-1966 (1967)
Context: We come after. We know now that a man can read Goethe or Rilke in the evening, that he can play Bach and Schubert, and go to his day's work at Auschwitz in the morning. To say that he has read them without understanding or that his ear is gross, is cant. In what way does this knowledge bear on literature and society, on the hope, grown almost axiomatic from the time of Plato to that of Matthew Arnold, that culture is a humanizing force, that the energies of spirit are transferable to those of conduct?
“The books that have helped me most are the ones I reacted to, not just read”
Rick Warren (1954) Christian religious leader
“I often carry things to read
so that I will not have to look at
the people.”
Charles Bukowski (1920–1994) American writer
Source: The Last Night of the Earth Poems
“Reading is a discount ticket to everywhere.”
Elizabeth Hardwick (1916–2007) Novelist, short story writer, literary critic
Mem Fox (1946) Australian academic and children's writer known for picture books
Source: Reading Magic: Why Reading Aloud to Our Children Will Change Their Lives Forever
“Both read the Bible day and night,
But thou read'st black where I read white.”
William Blake (1757–1827) English Romantic poet and artist
Elizabeth Hardwick (1916–2007) Novelist, short story writer, literary critic
Lori Wick American writer
Source: Where the Wild Rose Blooms
“And after reading Thoreau I felt how much I have lost by leaving nature out of my life.”
F. Scott Fitzgerald (1896–1940) American novelist and screenwriter
“We read to find ourselves, more fully and more strangely than otherwise we could hope to find.”
Harold Bloom (1930–2019) American literary critic and scholar
“This is my favorite book in all the world, though I have never read it.”
William Goldman book The Princess Bride
Source: The Princess Bride
Grant Morrison (1960) writer
Source: Supergods: What Masked Vigilantes, Miraculous Mutants, and a Sun God from Smallville Can Teach Us About Being Human
“My education was neglected, yet I was passionately fond of reading.”
Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley (1797–1851) English novelist, short story writer, dramatist, essayist, biographer, and travel writer
Source: Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus
Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon
Source: Think Big: Unleashing Your Potential for Excellence
“I once read that people who study others are wise but those who study themselves are enlightened".”
Robin S. Sharma (1965) Canadian self help writer
Source: The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari: A Fable About Fulfilling Your Dreams Reaching Your Destiny
“With one day's reading a man may have the key in his hands.”
Ezra Pound (1885–1972) American Imagist poet and critic
“Where the press is free and every man able to read, all is safe.”
Thomas Jefferson (1743–1826) 3rd President of the United States of America
Letter to Colonel Charles Yancey http://oll.libertyfund.org/?option=com_staticxt&staticfile=show.php%3Ftitle=807&chapter=88152&layout=html&Itemid=27 (6 January 1816) ME 14:384 <br class="br">1810s <br class="br">Context: If a nation expects to be ignorant and free, in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be. The functionaries of every government have propensities to command at will the liberty and property of their constituents. There is no safe deposit for these but with the people themselves; nor can they be safe with them without information. Where the press is free, and every man able to read, all is safe.
“People say that life is the thing, but I prefer reading.”
Logan Pearsall Smith (1865–1946) British American-born writer
Myself
Afterthoughts (1931)
John Adams (1735–1826) 2nd President of the United States
Source: Diary and Autobiography of John Adams: Volumes 1-4, Diary (1755-1804) and Autobiography
“The doors of the world are opened to people who can read.”
Ben Carson (1951) 17th and current United States Secretary of Housing and Urban Development; American neurosurgeon
Clifton Fadiman (1904–1999) American editor
Source: "Any Number Can Play," 1957
Mortimer J. Adler (1902–2001) American philosopher and educator
Source: How to Read a Book: The Classic Guide to Intelligent Reading
Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862) 1817-1862 American poet, essayist, naturalist, and abolitionist
A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers http://www.gutenberg.org/dirs/etext03/7cncd10.txt (1849), Thursday
“I can't believe it! Reading and writing actually paid off!”
Matt Groening (1954) American cartoonist
Lisa Kleypas (1964) American writer
Source: Scandal in Spring
“Show him every dawn & read to him endlessly.”
Ted Hughes (1930–1998) English poet and children's writer
Source: Letters of Ted Hughes
Joss Whedon (1964) American director, writer, and producer for television and film
Source: Astonishing X-Men, Volume 1: Gifted
James Baldwin (1924–1987) (1924-1987) writer from the United States
As quoted in "Doom and glory of knowing who you are" by Jane Howard, in LIFE magazine, Vol. 54, No. 21 (24 May 1963), p. 89 https://books.google.com/books?id=mEkEAAAAMBAJ; a part of this statement has often been quoted as it was paraphrased in The New York Times (1 June 1964): <br class="br">Context: You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was Dostoevsky and Dickens who taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who ever had been alive. Only if we face these open wounds in ourselves can we understand them in other people. An artist is a sort of emotional or spiritual historian. His role is to make you realize the doom and glory of knowing who you are and what you are. He has to tell, because nobody else can tell, what it is like to be alive.
Adeline Yen Mah (1937) Author and physician
Source: Chinese Cinderella: The True Story of an Unwanted Daughter
“Most people worth knowing enjoy reading.”
Brandon Mull (1974) American fiction writer
Source: Grip of the Shadow Plague
Dodie Smith book I Capture the Castle
Source: I Capture the Castle
Spike Milligan (1918–2002) British-Irish comedian, writer, musician, poet, playwright, soldier and actor
Spike Milligan with Jeremy Taylor Live at Cambridge University. Recorded at Cambridge University on December 2, 1973, this was previously released as a double LP, and later re-issued as a 2 CD set. Milligan used variations on the Shakespear line throughout his later life.
“Some people read to confirm their own hopelessness. Others read to be rescued from it.”
Anaïs Nin (1903–1977) writer of novels, short stories, and erotica
Source: In Favor of the Sensitive Man and Other Essays
“When she wanted to escape her life, she read books”
Jodi Picoult (1966) Author
Source: Between the Lines
“If we encounter a man of rare intellect, we should ask him what books he reads.”
Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882) American philosopher, essayist, and poet
John Waters (1946) American filmmaker, actor, comedian and writer
Source: Crackpot: The Obsessions of John Waters
Arthur C. Clarke (1917–2008) British science fiction writer, science writer, inventor, undersea explorer, and television series host
“I learned to write by reading the kind of books I wished I'd written.”
Barbara Kingsolver (1955) American author, poet and essayist
