Books Quote by David Shields

As writers become more numerous, it is natural for readers to become more indolent; whence must necessarily arise a desire of attaining knowledge with…

— Oliver Goldsmith

Among the letters my readers write me, there is a certain category which is continuously growing, and which I see as a symptom of…

— Anonymous

I speak as an unregenerate reader, one who still believes that language and not technology is the true evolutionary miracle. I have not yet…

— Sven Birkerts

There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. When the mind is braced by labor and invention, the page of whatever book…

— Ralph Waldo Emerson

As much as I revere great writing, and am still humbled by it, literary activities are no longer esoteric to me. When I read…

— Jonathan Lethem

Writing is a difficult trade which must be learned slowly by reading great authors; by trying at the outset to imitate them; by daring…

— Andre Maurois

The transaction between writer and reader is human civilization's most dazzling feat, yet it's such a part of our lives that it's, well, prosaic.

— Patricia T. O'Conner

Writers are naturally obsessed with books, the tangible artifacts of their labor. Even beyond the text, I love the physicality of books, the possibilities…

— Ken Liu

Novel writing, like so many things in life, is an iterative process. You come at it again and again, working at it like you…

— Kameron Hurley

Ultimately, literature is nothing but carpentry. With both you are working with reality, a material just as hard as wood.

— Gabriel Garcia Marquez

Complex literary works demand an effort from the reader that is becoming harder to justify, given the sink-or-swim pressures to make profitable products for…

— Joanna Scott

The more books we read, the clearer it becomes that the true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and that no…

— Cyril Connolly