Writing is a way of life. I do it because it's a way of experiencing the world, and trying to come to… — Emily Perkins Copy Share Image
“So why does our writing matter, again?" they ask. Because of the spirit, I say. Because of the heart. Writing and reading… — Anne Lamott Copy Share Image
The marketplace for books when I entered the business shortly after World War II consisted of a thousand or so well stocked… — Jason Epstein Copy Share Image
There is first the literature of knowledge, and secondly, the literature of power. The function of the first is--to teach; the function… — Thomas de Quincey Copy Share Image
I was read to as a small child, I read on my own as soon as I could, and I recall being… — Marilynne Robinson Copy Share Image
Writers are socially observant. We find people endlessly fascinating, and real life is mysterious. Sometimes it's hard to stop staring at the… — Julianna Baggott Copy Share Image
Word books traditionally focus on unusual and quirky items. They tend to ignore the words that provide the skeleton of the language,… — David Crystal Copy Share Image
When you send off a short story, it sits on the editor's desk in the same pile with stories by the most… — Daniel Quinn Copy Share Image
You know, I began my life as a creative person writing true things for magazines and telling some very honest, straightforward personal… — John Hodgman Copy Share Image
“I hate to be a nag, but you have got to read. Like most authors, I run creative writing workshops from time… — Sarah Harrison 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
“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
To aspiring writers, I would tell them that we live in a wonderful time where you're able to make your work visible,… — Diablo Cody Copy Share Image
When I'm sitting at my computer writing, I really have this fiendish smile on my face. I am not thinking about the… — Maria Semple Copy Share Image
Writers will see your work and want to try you in different things but I think you have to stay true to… — Michael K. Williams Copy Share Image
“...a book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements, clumsy hands. If for a… — Umberto Eco Copy Share Image
“Benjamin glanced at his eager driver. “The children’s author Roald Dahl said of Romanée-Conti: ‘Sense for me this perfume! Breathe this bouquet!… — Jean-Pierre Alaux Copy Share Image
“...the representation of human character and personality remains always the supreme literary value, whether in drama, lyric or narrative. I am naive… — Harold Bloom Copy Share Image
“They will say that I, having no literary skill, cannot properly express that which I desire to treat of, but they do… — Leonardo Da Vinci Reproductions Copy Share Image
I think it’s fairly common for writers to be afflicted with two simultaneous yet contradictory delusions, the burning certainty that we’re unique… — Scott Lynch Copy Share Image
As a novelist, I suppose I can say that I'm highly articulate. But I know, as a person, in other ways, I'm… — Graham Swift Copy Share Image
Who wants to become a writer? And why? Because it's the answer to everything. ... It's the streaming reason for living. To… — Enid Bagnold Copy Share Image
A book is actually a place, a place where we, as adults, still have the chance to engage in active imagining, translating… — Joe Meno Copy Share Image
What are the hallmarks of a competent writer of fiction? The first, it seems to me, is that he should be immensely… — H. L. Mencken Copy Share Image
[Hemingway] always used to bawl me out for including so much topical stuff. He always claimed that was a great mistake, that… — John Dos Passos Copy Share Image
I have a great deal of sympathy for reluctant readers because I was one. I would do anything to avoid reading. In… — Rick Riordan Copy Share Image
“I think of writing as a partnership with the reader. My goal is to feed their imagination, but only partially. If you… — S.J. Pierce Copy Share Image
“The Librarian swung on. It was slow progress, because there were things he wasn't keen on meeting. Creatures evolved to fill every… — Terry Pratchett Copy Share Image
“Literature is a cake with many toys baked inside-and even if you find them all, if you don't enjoy the path that… — Camron Wright Copy Share Image
And I came to understand, in a way I never had before, that books are truly the stuff of miracles. I even… — T.A. Barron Copy Share Image
“Vladimir Nabokov and George Orwell had quite different gifts, and their self-images were quite different. But, I shall argue, their accomplishment was… — Richard M. Rorty Copy Share Image
“A public library is the most enduring of memorials, the trustiest monument for the preservation of an event or a name or… — Mark Twain Copy Share Image
To write about history or language is supposed to be within the reach of every man. To write about natural science is… — Edward Augustus Freeman Copy Share Image
You will feel discouraged; you will lose confidence in your abilities; you will be bored with the characters–and the only way to… — John Dufresne Copy Share Image
Reading activates and exercises the mind. Reading forces the mind to discriminate. From the beginning, readers have to recognize letters printed on… — Anonymous Copy Share Image
I'll read pretty much anywhere and anytime, but for a while now, I've really enjoyed reading on flights, especially the longer hauls,… — Chang-Rae Lee Copy Share Image
I think about fanaticism - oblivion awaits, especially for minor writers, so you have to be a fanatic; you have to be… — Cynthia Ozick Copy Share Image
When a book, any sort of book, reaches a certain intensity of artistic performance, it becomes literature. That intensity may be a… — Raymond Chandler Copy Share Image
Literature remains an indispensable human activity, in which the reader and the writer are engaged of their own volition. Hence, literature has… — Gao Xingjian Copy Share Image
You are saying, are you not, I said to Manuelito, that stories have more room in them than ideas? [...] He laughed.… — Alice Walker Copy Share Image
![“They will say that I, having no literary skill, cannot properly express that which I desire to treat of, but they do not know that my subjects are to be dealt with by experience rather than by words. And [experience] has been the mistress of those who wrote well. And so, as mistress, I will cite…” quote by Leonardo Da Vinci Reproductions](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/c33/leonardo-da-vinci-reproduction_inspirational_they-will-say-that-i-having-no-literary_877193.jpg)
![“[Hemingway] always used to bawl me out for including so much topical stuff. He always claimed that was a great mistake, that in fifty years nobody would understand. He may have been right; it's getting to be true.” quote by John Dos Passos](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/7a9/john-dos-passos-3598_being-true_hemingway-always-used-to-bawl-me-out-for_2555058.jpg)
![“A public library is the most enduring of memorials, the trustiest monument for the preservation of an event or a name or an affection; for it, and it only, is respected by wars and revolutions, and survives them." [ Letter to the Millicent (Rogers) Library , February 22, 1894]” quote by Mark Twain](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/f36/mark-twain-22_libraries_a-public-library-is-the-most-enduring-of_1508750.jpg)
![“You are saying, are you not, I said to Manuelito, that stories have more room in them than ideas? [...] He laughed. That is correct, Señor. It is as if ideas are made of blocks. Rigid and hard. And stories are made of a gauze that is elastic. You can almost see through it, so what is beyond is…” quote by Alice Walker](https://sms4smile.com/quotes/i/a65/alice-walker-347_block_you-are-saying-are-you-not-i-said-to-man_2970096.png)
