--- title: "11 Read Listen Quotes by 10 authors" description: "Browse 11 Read Listen quotes by 10 authors. Discover the best Read Listen sayings and thoughts." image: "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/849/piers-anthony-8252_books_but-i-don-t-read-or-listen-for-pleasure_1987432.jpg" --- > [But I don't read or listen for pleasure. I have too much else to do.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/piers-anthony/but-i-don-t-read-or-listen-for-pleasure-i-have-too-much-else-to-do/) [Piers Anthony](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/piers-anthony/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/849/piers-anthony-8252_books_but-i-don-t-read-or-listen-for-pleasure_1987432.jpg) > [Sometimes it's better to not read too much, to not listen to everybody.](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/angelique-kerber/sometimes-it-s-better-to-not-read-too-much-to-not-listen-to-everybody/) [Angelique Kerber](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/angelique-kerber/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/d72/angelique-kerber-9442_better_sometimes-it-s-better-to-not-read-too-mu_656355.jpg) > [“Sometimes all a story needed was one or two people to read or listen to it to make it matter.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/adam-langer/sometimes-all-a-story-needed-was-one-or-two-people-to-read-or-listen/) [Adam Langer](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/adam-langer/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/26e/adam-langer-32843_story_sometimes-all-a-story-needed-was-one-or_2368536.jpg) > [“I can't read, can't listen to music. I can't do anything but just sit there, waiting for morning to come.”](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/haruki-murakami/i-can-t-read-can-t-listen-to-music-i-can-t-do-anything-but-just-sit/) [Haruki Murakami](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/haruki-murakami/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c30/haruki-murakami-21_music_i-can-t-read-can-t-listen-to-music-i-can_1491495.jpg) > [“Read and listen to one thinker and you become a clone; Read two and you become confused; Read ten and you get…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tim-keller/read-and-listen-to-one-thinker-and-you-become-a-clone-read-two-and/) [Tim Keller](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/tim-keller/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ef4/tim-keller-44105_books_read-and-listen-to-one-thinker-and-you-b_2415577.jpg) > [If it entertains you, cool - read it, listen to it, watch it. But if it horrifies or disgusts you or scares…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chris-reifert/if-it-entertains-you-cool-read-it-listen-to-it-watch-it-but-if-it/) [Chris Reifert](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/chris-reifert/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/08f/chris-reifert-39638_disgusting_if-it-entertains-you-cool-read-it-listen_303282.jpg) > [“If you will read and listen, you will admit a multiplicity of voices and points of view, consider them with some humility,…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rick-gekoski/if-you-will-read-and-listen-you-will-admit-a-multiplicity-of-voices/) [Rick Gekoski](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rick-gekoski/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a7a/rick-gekoski-43052_books_if-you-will-read-and-listen-you-will-adm_722494.jpg) > [“All narrative begins for me as listening. When I read, I listen. When I write, I listen—for silence, inflection, rhythm, rest. Then…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/toni-morrison/all-narrative-begins-for-me-as-listening-when-i-read-i-listen-when-i-2/) [Toni Morrison](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/toni-morrison/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/84f/toni-morrison-271_communication_all-narrative-begins-for-me-as-listening_1595754.jpg) > [“I am told by people all the time that they simply do not have time to read and listen to all the…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dan-s-kennedy-2/i-am-told-by-people-all-the-time-that-they-simply-do-not-have-time-to/) [Dan S. Kennedy](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/dan-s-kennedy-2/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/56d/dan-s-kennedy-2-105568_ambition_i-am-told-by-people-all-the-time-that-th_526409.jpg) > [“...begged them as we read our literary texts, only to listen. To wrench open - it takes an effort of will -…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rick-gekoski/begged-them-as-we-read-our-literary-texts-only-to-listen-to-wrench/) [Rick Gekoski](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/rick-gekoski/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/937/rick-gekoski-43052_books_begged-them-as-we-read-our-literary-text_977187.jpg) > [“. . . I bet I'm beginning to make some parents nervous - here I am, bragging of being a dropout, and…](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-lamott/i-bet-i-m-beginning-to-make-some-parents-nervous-here-i-am-bragging/) [Anne Lamott](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/author/anne-lamott/) [Image](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4f0/anne-lamott-188_busy-person_i-bet-i-m-beginning-to-make-some-parents_2123407.jpg) ```json { "@context": "https://schema.org", "@graph": [ { "@type": "ItemList", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/read-listen/#itemlist", "name": "Read Listen Quotes", "numberOfItems": 11, "itemListElement": [ { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 1, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "But I don't read or listen for pleasure. 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I can't do anything but just sit there, waiting for morning to come.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Haruki Murakami" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/haruki-murakami/i-can-t-read-can-t-listen-to-music-i-can-t-do-anything-but-just-sit/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c30/haruki-murakami-21_music_i-can-t-read-can-t-listen-to-music-i-can_1491495.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c30/haruki-murakami-21_music_i-can-t-read-can-t-listen-to-music-i-can_1491495.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c30/haruki-murakami-21_music_i-can-t-read-can-t-listen-to-music-i-can_1491495.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I can't read, can't listen to music. I can't do anything but just sit there, waiting for morning to come.” — Haruki Murakami", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 5, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“Read and listen to one thinker and you become a clone; Read two and you become confused; Read ten and you get your own voice; Read a hundred and you start to become wise.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Tim Keller" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/tim-keller/read-and-listen-to-one-thinker-and-you-become-a-clone-read-two-and/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ef4/tim-keller-44105_books_read-and-listen-to-one-thinker-and-you-b_2415577.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ef4/tim-keller-44105_books_read-and-listen-to-one-thinker-and-you-b_2415577.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/ef4/tim-keller-44105_books_read-and-listen-to-one-thinker-and-you-b_2415577.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“Read and listen to one thinker and you become a clone; Read two and you become confused; Read ten and you…” — Tim Keller", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 6, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "If it entertains you, cool - read it, listen to it, watch it. But if it horrifies or disgusts you or scares you, then don't listen to it.", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Chris Reifert" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/chris-reifert/if-it-entertains-you-cool-read-it-listen-to-it-watch-it-but-if-it/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/08f/chris-reifert-39638_disgusting_if-it-entertains-you-cool-read-it-listen_303282.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/08f/chris-reifert-39638_disgusting_if-it-entertains-you-cool-read-it-listen_303282.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/08f/chris-reifert-39638_disgusting_if-it-entertains-you-cool-read-it-listen_303282.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“If it entertains you, cool - read it, listen to it, watch it. But if it horrifies or disgusts you or scares…” — Chris Reifert", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 7, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“If you will read and listen, you will admit a multiplicity of voices and points of view, consider them with some humility, allow them gracious entrance however strident or discordant some of them may sound, then you will grow and change, and each of these voices will become a constituent part of who you become, an atom of growing being. It is literature and only literature than can do this.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Rick Gekoski" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rick-gekoski/if-you-will-read-and-listen-you-will-admit-a-multiplicity-of-voices/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a7a/rick-gekoski-43052_books_if-you-will-read-and-listen-you-will-adm_722494.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a7a/rick-gekoski-43052_books_if-you-will-read-and-listen-you-will-adm_722494.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a7a/rick-gekoski-43052_books_if-you-will-read-and-listen-you-will-adm_722494.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“If you will read and listen, you will admit a multiplicity of voices and points of view, consider them with…” — Rick Gekoski", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 8, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“All narrative begins for me as listening. When I read, I listen. When I write, I listen—for silence, inflection, rhythm, rest. Then comes the image, the picture of the thing that I have to invent: the headless bride in her wedding dress; the forest clearing. There is performance, too: “zzz went the saw,” accompanied by gesture. And cadence: “Old man Simon Gillicutty, caaatch me.” I need to use everything—sound, image, performance—to get at the full meaning of the story”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Toni Morrison" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/toni-morrison/all-narrative-begins-for-me-as-listening-when-i-read-i-listen-when-i-2/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/84f/toni-morrison-271_communication_all-narrative-begins-for-me-as-listening_1595754.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/84f/toni-morrison-271_communication_all-narrative-begins-for-me-as-listening_1595754.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/84f/toni-morrison-271_communication_all-narrative-begins-for-me-as-listening_1595754.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“All narrative begins for me as listening. When I read, I listen. When I write, I listen—for silence…” — Toni Morrison", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 9, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“I am told by people all the time that they simply do not have time to read and listen to all the material they have purchased or subscribed to. But time is democratic and just. Everyone has the same amount. When I choose to read with my mid morning coffee break and you choose to blather about trivia with friends, when I choose to study for an hour sitting on my backyard deck at day's end but you choose to watch a TIVO'd American Idol episode, we reveal much. When someone says he does not have the time to apply himself to acquiring the know-how required to create sufficient value for his stated desires, he is a farmer surrounded by ripe fruit and vegetables, whole grains, and a herd of cattle on his own property who dies of starvation, unable to organize his time and discipline himself to eat.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Dan S. Kennedy" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/dan-s-kennedy-2/i-am-told-by-people-all-the-time-that-they-simply-do-not-have-time-to/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/56d/dan-s-kennedy-2-105568_ambition_i-am-told-by-people-all-the-time-that-th_526409.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/56d/dan-s-kennedy-2-105568_ambition_i-am-told-by-people-all-the-time-that-th_526409.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/56d/dan-s-kennedy-2-105568_ambition_i-am-told-by-people-all-the-time-that-th_526409.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“I am told by people all the time that they simply do not have time to read and listen to all the material…” — Dan S. Kennedy", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 10, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“...begged them as we read our literary texts, only to listen. To wrench open - it takes an effort of will - the portcullis to their teenage hearts for just a couple of hours once a week, to humbly admit another, and better - a Yeats or Shakespeare, a Crazy Jane or Hamlet - and to welcome them, to allow for those tiny spots of time some vibration in the jelly of being, that makes, once it has settled, a subtle new mould... Otherwise, I would observe tartly...you are merely going to become a product of your family, the few friends you might make and the few lovers you may garner...nothing more than a function of your upbringing - a type. Whereas, if you will only read, and listen, you will admit a multiplicity of voices and points of view, consider them with some humility, allow them gracious entrance however strident or discordant some of them may sound, then you will grow and change, and each of these voices will become a constituent part of who you become, an atom of growing being. It is literature and only literature than can do this.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Rick Gekoski" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/rick-gekoski/begged-them-as-we-read-our-literary-texts-only-to-listen-to-wrench/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/937/rick-gekoski-43052_books_begged-them-as-we-read-our-literary-text_977187.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/937/rick-gekoski-43052_books_begged-them-as-we-read-our-literary-text_977187.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/937/rick-gekoski-43052_books_begged-them-as-we-read-our-literary-text_977187.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“...begged them as we read our literary texts, only to listen. To wrench open - it takes an effort of will…” — Rick Gekoski", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } }, { "@type": "ListItem", "position": 11, "item": { "@type": "Quotation", "text": "“. . . I bet I'm beginning to make some parents nervous - here I am, bragging of being a dropout, and unemployable, and about to make a pitch for you to follow your creative dreams, when what parents want is for their children to do well in their field, to make them look good, and maybe also to assemble a tasteful fortune . . . But that is not your problem. Your problem is how you are going to spend this one odd and precious life you have been issued. Whether you're going to live it trying to look good and creating the illusion that you have power over people and circumstances, or whether you are going to taste it, enjoy it, and find out the truth about who you are . . . I do know you are not what you look like, or how much you weigh, or how you did in school, or whether you start a job next Monday or not. Spirit isn't what you do, it's . . . well, again, I don't actually know. They probably taught this junior year at Goucher; I should've stuck around. But I know that you feel best when you're not doing much - when you're in nature, when you're very quiet or, paradoxically, listening to music . . . We can see Spirit made visible when people are kind to one another, especially when it's a really busy person, like you, taking care of the needy, annoying, neurotic person, like you. In fact, that's often when we see Spirit most brightly . . . In my twenties I devised a school of relaxation that has unfortunately fallen out of favor in the ensuing years - it was called Prone Yoga. You just lay around as much as possible. You could read, listen to music, you could space out or sleep. But you had to be lying down. Maintaining the prone. You've graduated. You have nothing left to prove, and besides, it's a fool's game. If you agree to play, you've already lost. It's Charlie Brown and Lucy, with the football. If you keep getting back on the field, they win. There are so many great things to do right now. Write. Sing. Rest. Eat cherries. Register voters. And - oh my God - I nearly forgot the most important thing: refuse to wear uncomfortable pants, even if they make you look really thin. Promise me you'll never wear pants that bind or tug or hurt, pants that have an opinion about how much you've just eaten. The pants may be lying! There is way too much lying and scolding going on politically right now without having your pants get in on the act, too. So bless you. You've done an amazing thing. And you are loved; you're capable of lives of great joy and meaning. It's what you are made of. And it's what you're here for. Take care of yourselves; take care of one another. And give thanks, like this: Thank you.”", "creator": { "@type": "Person", "name": "Anne Lamott" }, "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/anne-lamott/i-bet-i-m-beginning-to-make-some-parents-nervous-here-i-am-bragging/", "image": { "@type": "ImageObject", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4f0/anne-lamott-188_busy-person_i-bet-i-m-beginning-to-make-some-parents_2123407.jpg", "contentUrl": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4f0/anne-lamott-188_busy-person_i-bet-i-m-beginning-to-make-some-parents_2123407.jpg", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/4f0/anne-lamott-188_busy-person_i-bet-i-m-beginning-to-make-some-parents_2123407.jpg", "width": 1080, "height": 1080, "caption": "“. . . I bet I'm beginning to make some parents nervous - here I am, bragging of being a dropout, and…” — Anne Lamott", "creditText": "SMS4Smile Quotes", "creator": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#organization" } } } } ] }, { "@type": "CollectionPage", "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/read-listen/#webpage", "url": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/read-listen/", "name": "Read Listen Quotes", "isPartOf": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/#website" }, "mainEntity": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/about/read-listen/#itemlist" }, "primaryImageOfPage": { "@id": "https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/849/piers-anthony-8252_books_but-i-don-t-read-or-listen-for-pleasure_1987432.jpg" }, "description": "Browse 11 Read Listen quotes by 10 authors. 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