Alive Quote by Doris Kearns Goodwin

“Tolstoy had 13 kids and still wrote War & Peace.”

— Steven Pressfield

I first read War And Peace about 100 years after Tolstoy wrote it.

— Simon Schama

I've read probably 25 or 30 books by Balzac, all of Tolstoy - the novels and letters - and all of Dickens. I learned…

— Twyla Tharp

“Well, it does educate us about life. I wouldn’t be the person I am, I wouldn’t understand what I understand, were it not for…

— Susan Sontag

Reading might not be the way that the child engages with the world, but it should be something that they all learn how to…

— Kate DiCamillo

When I am teaching, I first give out Tolstoy's 'Childhood,' his first published book. It is so transparent. It gives you exactly what it…

— Claire Messud

This is not Tolstoy. I don't want to know what critics and professors think of what I'm writing. It might hurt my feelings.

— Lisa Kleypas

I think that writers of literary fiction would do well to read more books for children.

— Eleanor Catton

I read so ravenously that I would read through whole categories. I was crazy about reading biographies. [...] I think biographies are very urgent…

— Joan Didion

I can't promise that every child with learning differences will become a novelist, but I do think all children can become lifelong readers.

— Rick Riordan

“Tolstoy’s interest in history began early in his life. It seems to have arisen not from interest in the past as such, but from…

— Isaiah Berlin

“I think the need for reading boils down to one simple issue: children are selfish. Reading about other people creates a sense of balance…

— Alan Bennett