Books Quotes by Robertson Davies

The ideal companion in bed is a good book.

— Robertson Davies

“Nobody ever reads the same book twice.”

— Robertson Davies

To be a book-collector is to combine the worst characteristics of a dope fiend with those of a miser.

— Robertson Davies

I think of an author as somebody who goes into the marketplace and puts down his rug and says, "I will tell…

— Robertson Davies

“Are you New World or Old?' 'Sounds like a novel by Henry James.' 'Never read him.' 'Don't. But that was his question…

— Robertson Davies

“What is meant to be heard is necessarily more direct in expression, and perhaps more boldly coloured, than what is meant for…

— Robertson Davies

I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them.

— Robertson Davies

You would not serve junk food at a banquet, and your book must be a banquet. Get your language from Swift, not…

— Robertson Davies

The clerisy are those who seek, and find, delight and enlargement of life in books. The clerisy are those for whom reading…

— Robertson Davies

The book forces itself into my mind when I am lugging furniture, or pulling weeds.

— Robertson Davies

If I had my way books would not be written in English but in an exceedingly difficult secret language… This plan would…

— Robertson Davies

Too much traffic with a quotation book begets a conviction of ignorance in a sensitive reader. Not only is there a mass…

— Robertson Davies

“Conversations and jokes together, mutual rendering of good services, the reading together of sweetly phrased books, the sharing of nonsense and mutual…

— Robertson Davies

“Life, as he conceived of it, was a long decline from a glorious past, and if a reader approaches a newspaper in…

— Robertson Davies

Computers will have to learn that when I quote from some old author who spelled differently from the machine, the wishes of…

— Robertson Davies

Do not suppose, however, that I intend to urge a diet of classics on anybody. I have seen such diets at work.…

— Robertson Davies

It is in this matter that I fall foul of so many American writers on writing; they seem to think that writing…

— Robertson Davies

The great book for you is the book that has the most to say to you at the moment when you are…

— Robertson Davies

“So -- I confess I have been a rake at reading. I have read those things which I ought not to have…

— Robertson Davies

Many authors write like amateur blacksmiths making their first horseshoe; the clank of the anvil, the stench of the scorched leather apron,…

— Robertson Davies

Book lovers are thought by unbookish people to be gentle and unworldly, and perhaps a few of them are so. But there…

— Robertson Davies

I don't think I would ever write a book with what anybody could call pornography in it, because I feel that pornography…

— Robertson Davies

Real bibliophiles do not put their books on shelves for people to look at or handle. They have no desire to show…

— Robertson Davies

If I had my way books would not be written in English, but in an exceedingly difficult secret language that only skilled…

— Robertson Davies

“She herself was a victim of that lust for books which rages in the breast like a demon, and which cannot be…

— Robertson Davies

“Who's Mrs. Gummidge?' 'If you're a good girl and get well soon I'll lend you the book.' 'Oh, somebody in a book!…

— Robertson Davies

“Our appetite for destruction grew with feeding. I started gingerly, pulling some books out of a case, but soon was tearing out…

— Robertson Davies

There is absolutely no point in sitting down to write a book unless you feel that you must write that book, or…

— Robertson Davies

The clerisy are those who read for pleasure, but not for idleness; who read for pastime but not to kill time; who…

— Robertson Davies

Authors like cats because they are such quiet, lovable, wise creatures, and cats like authors for the same reasons.

— Robertson Davies

A great many complimentary things have been said about the faculty of memory, and if you look in a good quotation book…

— Robertson Davies

You're all mad for words. Words are just farts from a lot of fools who have swallowed too many books. Give me…

— Robertson Davies

A truly great book should be read in youth, again in maturity and once more in old age, as a fine building…

— Robertson Davies

It used to be fashionable for authors to have their pictures taken with dogs, but the dogs always looked like models hired…

— Robertson Davies

“I came at last to a recognition of myself as, in part , a Tom Sawyer who wanted everything done according to…

— Robertson Davies

If I had my way books would not be written in English, but in an exceedingly difficult secret language that only skilled…

— Robertson Davies

To ask an author who hopes to be a serious writer if his work is autobiographical is like asking a spider where…

— Robertson Davies

I never heard of anyone who was really literate or who ever really loved books who wanted to suppress any of them.…

— Robertson Davies

The people who are always monkeying with these great books to make them fully (comprehensible) have no friend in me, for in…

— Robertson Davies

Literary critics, however, frequently suffer from a curious belief that every author longs to extend the boundaries of literary art, wants to…

— Robertson Davies