Books are like imprisoned souls until someone takes them…

Books are like imprisoned souls till someone takes them down from a shelf and frees them.

— Samuel Butler

“I swore to myself that I would never be like her, so imprisoned that I didn’t even need a collar to obey my masters.”

— Lesley Livingston

The history of mankind for the last four centuries is rather like that of an imprisoned sleeper, stirring clumsily and uneasily while the prison…

— H. G. Wells

“There is a part of me that no one ever sees. I hide behind a mask of heavy make-up and ever-changing hair and clothing.…

— Julia Crane

I learned to build bookshelves and brought books to my room, gathering them around me thickly. I read by day and into the night.…

— Mary Oliver

There is always one moment in childhood when the door opens and lets the future in...We should be thankful we cannot see the horrors…

— Graham Greene

My mom didn't write, but she loved to read. She liked books 'that made you a little nervous.' Stephen King, Dean Koontz and Peter…

— Michael Easton

“If I am alive this is my book, and my father lives now in the afterlife that is a book, a thing not vague…

— Niall Williams

The time will come when, with elation you will greet yourself arriving at your own door, in your own mirror and each will smile…

— Derek Walcott

I source images and ideas from different parts of my experiences, and sometimes they are things that are made-up, or just appear out of…

— Julia Stone

If I walk into a place, a party, say, and there's a bookshelf, I immediately gravitate toward it. Unless there's a bar. But even…

— Jonathan Evison

You ever buy a book and not read it? You feel almost guilty having it up on a bookshelf. People are like, "Hey, how's…

— Jim Gaffigan

“She says I ought to throw out at least two books for every one I buy. I had new bookshelves put up in the…

— Martin Edwards

...Mr. Wodehouse is a prose stylist of such startling talent that Frankie nearly skipped around with glee when she first read some of his…

— E. Lockhart

I have a nice bookshelf in my office, but not my house. I'm crass, but not that crass.

— Jerry Seinfeld