People think that because a novel's invented, it isn't true. Exactly the reverse is the case. Biography and memoirs can never be… — Anthony Powell Copy Share Image
Without the book business it would be difficult or impossible for true books to find their true readers and without that solitary… — John McGahern Copy Share Image
Have more than one idea on the go at any one time. If it's a choice between writing a book and doing… — Geoff Dyer Copy Share Image
“Your understanding and interpretation of [a novel] is undoubtedly unique…and that is the real beauty of the relationship that joins readers, books… — Briar Kit Esme Copy Share Image
“What shall I do with all my books?' was the question, and the answer, 'Read them,' sobered the questioner. But if you… — Winston Churchill Copy Share Image
...fiction is made out of the writer's experience, his whole life from infancy on, everything he's thought and done and seen and… — Ursula K. Le Guin Copy Share Image
“Why else do we read anyway? I think most of us, anyway, read these stories that we know are not "true" because… — Orson Scott Card Copy Share Image
“E. L. Doctorow quote that I believe, too: “Writing is like driving at night in the fog. You can see only as… — Paula Treick DeBoard Copy Share Image
“Two kinds of writers. Those who think this life is all there is, and want to describe everything: the fall, the battle,… — Susan Sontag Copy Share Image
“When I stepped into the brown-tiled entryway of the Kentwood Public Library, the sunlight flowing down on me from the high windows,… — Bich Minh Nguyen Copy Share Image
“Did you… need something?” he asked in a tight voice. I swallowed hard, my mind racing with a million things to say.… — Mari Mancusi Copy Share Image
Like every other form of art, literature is no more and nothing less than a matter of life and death. The only… — Mavis Gallant Copy Share Image
“The central theme of Anna Karenina," he said, "is that a rural life of moral simplicity, despite its monotony, is the preferable… — Lemony Snicket Copy Share Image
Publishers, naturally, loathe used books and have developed strategies to depress the secondhand market. They bring out new, even more expensive editions… — James Surowiecki Copy Share Image
Well, you sort of get out of the pool room, you get out of the Marine Corps, you get out and read… — Harvey Keitel Copy Share Image
I think people ease into this careerist professionalism, so if you're a writer it's your job to manufacture books as opposed to… — Arundhati Roy Copy Share Image
I was under the librarians' protection. Civil servants and servants of civility, they had my back. The would be whatever they needed… — Marilyn Johnson Copy Share Image
“When you are trying to find your writing voice don’t try to emulate any writer, not even your favorite. Sit quietly, listen,… — Jan Marquart Copy Share Image
“No season lives here. This space has quite successfully shut out any such interference. The cunning designer saw to it that there… — Geoffrey O'Brien Copy Share Image
The last story you should write is the most important story. You should start with a story that is just an amusing,… — Chuck Palahniuk Copy Share Image
“I think a great book—leaving aside other qualities such as narrative power, characterization, style, and so on—is a book that describes the… — Julian Barnes Copy Share Image
Everyone thinks they can be a writer. Most people don't understand what's involved. The real writers persevere. The ones that don't either… — Peter McWilliams Copy Share Image
“... because one day, maybe one day, if I learned how to write clear enough, sing loud enough, be strong enough, I… — Charlotte Eriksson Copy Share Image
“The books are hard. But the more she asked, the more the children gave. And, though they never saw her, there were… — Parents' National Education Union Copy Share Image
Witing is essentially interior work, and many writers are interior personalities. Having a job forces you out of the world of your… — Hanya Yanagihara Copy Share Image
“Books were my hobby, even as a child,' he told me. 'I read about every book in Milkwaukee Public Library before I… — Ruth Brandon Copy Share Image
The act of writing means you wish to communicate. Whether you're writing a memoir for yourself you put in a drawer, or… — Harlan Ellison Copy Share Image
“Thomas Randall and Christopher Golden not only are inventive writers but write in a sense to grab your attention cover to cover!… — Thomas Randall Copy Share Image
“And it's what you never will write," said the Controller. "Because, if it were really like Othello nobody could understand it, however… — Aldous Huxley Copy Share Image
We all often feel like we are pulling teeth, even those writers whose prose ends up being the most natural and fluid.… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
You don't have to become an investment banker as a way of demonstrating that education has worked for you. But librarians have… — Francis Spufford Copy Share Image
Writers always sound insufferably smug when they sit back and assert that their job is only to ask questions and not to… — David Hare Copy Share Image
“We do need knowledge. . . Most of us can't rush around, talk to everyone, know all the cities of the world,… — Ray Bradbury Copy Share Image
I don't want to blame anybody, but I just want to tell you that the process of writing is antisocial, so on… — Sandra Cisneros Copy Share Image
“I have an unshaken conviction that democracy can never be undermined if we maintain our library resources and a national intelligence capable… — Franklin Delano Roosevelt Copy Share Image
“As simple an act as reading or writing a sentence must be surrounded by perceptory nap and weave . . . an… — David Brin Copy Share Image
This thought-provoking novel portrays the absurdity of our overbearing government bureaucracy with a story that is entertaining and fast-paced. The Taxman Cometh… — Grover Norquist Copy Share Image
I was really bored, pretty antisocial, and not much of a joiner, and people thought that was a problem. I hated high… — Deborah Ellis Copy Share Image
“I never presume to give advice on writing. I think the best way to learn to write is to read books and… — Maureen Dowd Copy Share Image
“My mother says that reading is thinking,’ Sofia said. ‘Not that we read and then we think, but rather that we think… — Ricardo Piglia Copy Share Image