“the book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel. once invented, it cannot be improved” — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“A library's ideal function is to be a little bit like a bouquiniste's stall, a place for trouvailles .” — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“Good libraries hold several millions of books: even if we read a book a day, we would read only 365 a year,… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
Since I became a novelist I have discovered that I am biased. Either I think a new novel is worse than mine… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
Thus I rediscovered what writers have always known (and have told us again and again): books always speak of other books, and… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
My maternal grandmother - she was a compulsive reader. She had only been through five grades of elementary school, but she was… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
A writer writes for writers, a non-writer writes for his next-door neighbor or for the manager of the local bank branch, and… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
The book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved. You cannot make a spoon… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
There are books on our shelves we haven't read and doubtless never will, that each of us has probably put to one… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
libraries are fascinating places: sometimes you feel you are under the canopy of a railway station, and when you read books about… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
Authors frequently say things they are unaware of; only after they have gotten the reactions of their readers do they discover what… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
A narrator should not supply interpretations of his work; otherwise he would have not written a novel, which is a machine for… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
Every time that I write a novel I am convinced for at least two years that it is the last one, because… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a book, we mustn't ask ourselves… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
The good of a book lies in its being read. A book is made up of signs that speak of other signs,… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
I discovered ... that a novel has nothing to do with words in the first instance. Writing a novel is a cosmological… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
A book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements and clumsy hands. so the… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
I think that at a certain age, say fifteen or sixteen, poetry is like masturbation. But later in life good poets burn their early… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
Followers of the occult believe in only what they already know, and in those things that confirm what they have already learned. — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“This has nothing to do with realism (even if it explains also realism). A completely real world can be constructed, in which asses fly… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“…there’s nothing in this world that demands more caution than the truth. To tell the truth is like leeching one’s own heart...” — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
The book is like the spoon, scissors, the hammer, the wheel. Once invented, it cannot be improved. You cannot make a spoon that is… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“No algorithm exists for the metaphor, nor can a metaphor be produced by means of a computer’s precise instructions, no matter what the volume… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
With all of its defects, the global market makes war less likely, even between the USA and China. — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
The Fundamental Principle that governs - or ought to govern -human affairs if we wish to avoid misunderstandings, conflicts, or pointless utopias, is negotiation. — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
American coffee can be a pale solution served at a temperature of 100 degrees centigrade in plastic thermos cups, usually obligatory in railroad stations… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
Listening doesn't mean trying to understand. Anything, however trifling, may be of use one day. What matters is to know something that others don't… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
They say that a cat, if it falls from a window and hits its nose, can lose its sense of smell and then, because… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
