If somebody writes a book and doesn't care for the survival of that book, he's an imbecile. — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“someone has mixed and shuffled the words of the Book more than was right.” — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
The author should die once he has finished writing. So as not to trouble the path of the text. — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
I wrote a novel because I had a yen to do it. I believe this is sufficient reason to set out to… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“Adso of Melk: The Koran, the Bible of the infidels, a perverse book … William of Baskerville: A book containing a wisdom… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
An idea you have might not be original. But by creating a novel out of that idea you can make it original. — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
I have to admit that I only read 'War and Peace' when I was 40. But I knew the basics before then. — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
A book is a fragile creature. It suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements, clumsy hands. — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
I think every professor and writer is in some way an exhibitionist because his or her normal activity is a theatrical one.… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
The question of manuscript changes is very important for literary criticism, the psychology of creation and other aspects of the study of… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
Thus I rediscovered what writers have always known (and have told us again and again): books always speak of other books, and… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
libraries are fascinating places: sometimes you feel you are under the canopy of a railway station, and when you read books about… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
My maternal grandmother - she was a compulsive reader. She had only been through five grades of elementary school, but she was… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
The book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved. You cannot make a spoon… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
There are books on our shelves we haven't read and doubtless never will, that each of us has probably put to one… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“Here's a book about gnomes, undines, salamanders, elves, sylphs, fairies, but it, too, brings in the origins of Aryan civilization. The SS,… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“...a book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements, clumsy hands. If for a… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“The good thing about the studium is the that you learn from your teachers, true, but even more from your fellows, especially… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“There are magic moments, involving great physical fatigue and intense motor excitement, that produce visions of people known in the past ("en… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“Usually the recipe for a bestseller is to give people what they want. My challenge is and was: Give them what they… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“William was deeply humiliated. I tried to comfort him; I told him that for three days he had been looking for a… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“True,' I said, amazed. Until then I had thought each book spoke of the things, human or devine, that lie outside books.… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“Until then I had thought each book spoke of the things, human or divine, that lie outside books. Now I realized that… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
We stopped to browse in the cases, and now that William - with his new glasses on his nose - could linger… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
The author may not interpret. But he must tell why and how he wrote his book. — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“When a spy sells something entirely new, all he needs to do is recount something you could find in any second-hand book… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
I think a book should be judged 10 years later, after reading and re-reading it. — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“What model reader did I want as i was writing? An accomplice, to be sure, one who would play my game.” — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“... we read novels because they give us the comfortable sensation of living in worlds where the notion of truth is indisputable,… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
Authors frequently say things they are unaware of; only after they have gotten the reactions of their readers do they discover what… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
A narrator should not supply interpretations of his work; otherwise he would have not written a novel, which is a machine for… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
I don't want to write a novel per year. I know that I need a break of one or two years. So… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
After years of practice, I can walk into a bookstore and understand its layout in a few seconds. I can glance at… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“Good libraries hold several millions of books: even if we read a book a day, we would read only 365 a year,… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“The good of a book lies in its being read. A book is made up of signs that speak of other signs,… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“It’s true,” Benno said, smiling for the first time, his face growing almost radiant. “We live for books. A sweet mission in… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
Since I became a novelist I have discovered that I am biased. Either I think a new novel is worse than mine… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
My grandfather had a particularly important influence on my life, even though I didn't visit him often, since he lived about three… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“But this lump does not absolve me, because I got it through heedlessness, not though courage. I run my tongue over my… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“Entering a novel is like going on a climb in the mountains: you have to learn the rhythm of respiration, acquire the… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
I think that at a certain age, say fifteen or sixteen, poetry is like masturbation. But later in life good poets burn their early… — Umberto Eco Copy Share
Followers of the occult believe in only what they already know, and in those things that confirm what they have already learned. — Umberto Eco Copy Share
“This has nothing to do with realism (even if it explains also realism). A completely real world can be constructed, in which asses fly… — Umberto Eco Copy Share
“…there’s nothing in this world that demands more caution than the truth. To tell the truth is like leeching one’s own heart...” — Umberto Eco Copy Share
The book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved. You cannot make a spoon that is… — Umberto Eco Copy Share
“No algorithm exists for the metaphor, nor can a metaphor be produced by means of a computer’s precise instructions, no matter what the volume… — Umberto Eco Copy Share
With all of its defects, the global market makes war less likely, even between the USA and China. — Umberto Eco Copy Share
The Fundamental Principle that governs - or ought to govern -human affairs if we wish to avoid misunderstandings, conflicts, or pointless utopias, is negotiation. — Umberto Eco Copy Share
American coffee can be a pale solution served at a temperature of 100 degrees centigrade in plastic thermos cups, usually obligatory in railroad stations… — Umberto Eco Copy Share
Listening doesn't mean trying to understand. Anything, however trifling, may be of use one day. What matters is to know something that others don't… — Umberto Eco Copy Share
They say that a cat, if it falls from a window and hits its nose, can lose its sense of smell and then, because… — Umberto Eco Copy Share
There are magic moments, involving great physical fatigue and intense motor excitement, that produce visions of people known in the past. As I learned… — Umberto Eco Copy Share
There are four kinds of people in this world: cretins, fools, morons, and lunatics. — Umberto Eco Copy Share
