Books Quotes · Page 585

One should not be too severe on English novels; they are the only relaxation of the intellectually unemployed.

— Oscar Wilde

Writers are historians, too. It is in literature that the greater truths about a people and their past are found.

— F. Sionil Jose

One of the pleasures of reading is seeing this alteration on the pages, and the way, by reading it, you have made…

— Paul Theroux

The novel is a territory where one does not make assertions; it is a territory of play and of hypotheses.

— Milan Kundera

I see so many tattoos of my stuff on people - tattoos of my book covers, tattoos of quotes . . .…

— Chuck Palahniuk

I've read the whole 'Divergent' series, the 'Pretty' series. I just read it because I find this stuff interesting to read.

— Mark Waters

When a Benefit is wrongly conferred, the author of the Benefit may often be said to injure.

— Plato

“See my books on my website JD Manuscript.co.uk . This website is also manuscriot typing service for authors.”

— Joan Spence

A powerful agent is the right word. Whenever we come upon one of those intensely right words in a book or newspaper…

— Mark Twain

What makes literature interesting is that it does not survive its translation. The characters in a novel are made out of the…

— Jonathan Miller

It's terrible for people when they really love a book and there's an adaptation and they don't like it, because it's almost…

— Killian Scott

“She'd obviously read the book many times before, and so she read flawlessly and confidently, and I could hear her smile in…

— John Green

This book's title, Rough Beauty , conveys Anderson's conviction that the hard scrabble lives of most of the residents of Vidor, Texas,…

— Anne Wilkes Tucker

Some writers can produce marvelous plots without planning it out, but I can't. In particular I need to know the structure of…

— Emma Donoghue

The novel remains for me one of the few forms where we can record man's complexity and the strength and decency of…

— John Cheever

I've had many more thousands of books in my possession than my shelves at home would indicate. At one time, I tried…

— Lewis Buzbee

Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.

— Mark Twain

How can you not care?" "Practice," Magnus said, looking back to his book and turning the page.

— Cassandra Clare

I'm so bored of all these girls who have written about 20 books by the time they're 25.

— Gail Porter

I notice that students, particularly for gay students, it's too easy to write about my last trick or something. It's not very…

— Thom Gunn

My wife and I love to read. We're going to have to move out to make room for the books! And we…

— Gale Gordon

The novel is not so much a literary genre, but a literary space, like a sea that is filled by many rivers.

— Jose Saramago

I dreamed of having a book of my own, of writing one that I could put on a shelf.

— Patti Smith

“If there is a single person at the nexus of fantasy literature, it is Terri Windling -- as editor, as writer, as…

— Jane Yolen

The praise of ancient authors proceeds not from the reverence of the dead, but from the competition and mutual envy of the…

— Thomas Hobbes

You want to feel that your reader does identify with the characters so that there's a real entry into the story -…

— Jill McCorkle

“I like to curl up in a quiet corner and write a good book. I hate when life gets in the way…

— Carrie Olguin

“[...] imaginative literature situates itself somewhere between truth and meaning [...]”

— Harold Bloom

'The Dovekeepers' is a fantastic novel written by Alice Hoffman; it was a bestselling novel, and I fell in love with the…

— Roma Downey

It's hard to read good fiction when I am writing, because if it is really good I catch myself sort of inadvertently…

— John Grisham

To be a good editor or a good writer, I think you really need to be a great reader first.

— Karen Thompson Walker

Child! Do not throw this book about; refrain from the unholy pleasure of cutting all the pictures out.

— Hilaire Belloc

“Pacts with the devil have been made many times. There is no other way to explain the popularity of the book Fifty…

— Jennifer Wright

“Art supersedes knowledge written in books. Art is the muse. Art is magic settling upon your he[art] like dust.”

— Michael Bassey Johnson

A crenelated wall of books encircles my bed, its tottering towers looming ever taller, always on the verge of collapsing onto oblivious…

— Simon Sebag Montefiore

First and foremost, I'm a decorator and product designer. Everything I do, the television shows, the books, that comes from the design…

— Nate Berkus

“The ultimate function of a book, however, is to be read, not to be looked or picked at.”

— Danis Rose and John O'Hanlon. Afterword to The Restored Finnegans Wake

I would like to read some books: I don't have time; I would like to continue working on my autobiography.

— Gunther Schuller

My life is a story, and I am the author, but i've written in pen so the mistakes i've made cannot be…

— Briana

Librarians save lives by handing the right book at the right time to a kid in need.

— Judy Blume