Books Quotes · Page 634

I never plan my novels because if I know what is going to happen, it bores me rigid. I let the story…

— James Herbert

“Men, I thought, were more trouble than they were worth. Really, one should stick to books where one sees the hero coming…

— Eva Rice

“If we really want our students to become wild readers, independent of our support and oversight, sometimes the best thing we can…

— Donalyn Miller

My attitudes have changed, but somebody would have to read all my books to find out how they have

— Irwin Shaw

I'm quite a good reader of people; I like to meet people, and I can tell if they're lying or not.

— Rhys Darby

“To know your way round a library is to master the whole of culture, i.e. the whole world.”

— Sophie Divry

“I read novels to indulge in a concentrated and directed inner activity that parallels -- and thereby tunes up, accentuates -- my…

— Sven Birkerts

I'm not a fan of self-help books - how can something be 'self-help' if the book itself is purportedly helping you?

— Harlan Coben

The virtue of dress rehearsals is that they are a free show for a select group of artists and friends of the…

— Alfred Jarry

'The Tin Drum' is one of my favourite books of all time - I've probably got 12 or 15 copies with different…

— Jamie Hince

I think we have some serious problems now, but, if you look back over the last thirty or forty years that my…

— Floyd Abrams

Literally, the piece at the end is where the universe is cracked apart, it's a big moment. Basically, they, the filmmakers, have…

— Daniel Craig

In America there's a tendency to write the same book over and over because that's what sells. So in a way, my…

— Steven Tyler

[Comics is] one of the last havens for honesty when it comes to a reader's genuine response to art. Most of us,…

— Chris Ware

I decided to become an author when my grandmother taught me to write, when I was six. I can still recall the…

— Henning Mankell

I think successful movies that are based on books are their own thing. I think if you're too faithful, word by word,…

— Peter Dinklage

I read books and talked to people. I mean that's kind of how one learns anything. There's lots of great books out…

— Elon Musk

My first crime novel, "Wild Horses," sold at auction, and that changed my life at an ideal time.

— Brian Hodge

I do believe in that thing about the reading audience being very important to the formation of the novel at its birth.

— John Lanchester

I love to read nonfiction and memoir, but I'm mostly interested in the piece of writing more than the person.

— Alice Mattison

I majored in the history and literature of Russia and Britain. It has not helped my career.

— Colin Jost

I'm definitely a closed book and that's extended through most of my life, not just football.

— Danny Drinkwater

“Self-editing a novel is like trying to put pants on a cat: yes, it's painful and time consuming, but in the end,…

— Robert Jack

I write the big scenes first, that is, the scenes that carry the meaning of the book, the emotional experience.

— Joyce Cary

“Poetry is a painting of the imaginations of the human mind, but the reader needs to feel it and touch it.”

— Adewale Joel

No book is a chapter, no chapter tells the whole story, no mistake defines who we are. Hope makes our lives page…

— Bob Goff

Poetry, it is often said and loudly so, is life's true mirror. But a monkey looking into a work of literature looks…

— Franz Grillparzer

It's tough to stay married. My wife says no because she's tired then stays up and reads her book.

— Rodney Dangerfield

“Any adult with an ID can get a free “reader identification” and use the library.”

— Patricia Schultz

The world is the book of women. Whatever knowledge they may possess is more commonly acquired by observation than by reading.

— Jean-Jacques Rousseau

“Sometimes I feel as if I've lived about six lifetimes...all fictionalized in my six books.”

— Laurel-Rain Snow

I don't really do themes. I might accidentally, but themes are an emergent phenomena of the writing of the book, of just…

— Iain Banks

Writing a children's book means you cannot spin out long narratives or have complex character development.

— Norman Macleod

I never get used to it, the unknowable mystery of a person so suddenly, totally closed, snapped shut like a half-read novel.

— Linda Barnes

I watch comic book movies. Give me 'The Avengers,' give me 'Thor', those are my area. But I don't watch comedies.

— Melissa Marr

“Something’s wrong in the air, you know, when a book costs less than a bullet. Or a Coke. Values-wise. Lydia”

— Matthew J. Sullivan

“Being an indie author is just like being a fish in the ocean and waiting for a reader to sail with their…

— Stjepan Varesevac Cobets

Open a Jewish daily prayer book used in any part of the world, and Zionism will leap out at you.

— Ephraim Mirvis

I try to stick with what moves me or teaches me about myself, same thing I hope the novels do for others.

— Wally Lamb

An editor is like a professional reader, and as I became a better reader, I also became a better writer.

— Karen Thompson Walker