Books Quote by Patrick O'Brian

Sir,’ said Stephen, ‘I read novels with the utmost pertinacity. I look upon them--I look upon good novels--as a very valuable part of literature,…

— Patrick O'Brian

“That's the pleasure and challenge of reading great novels; you get to see yourself as others see you and you get to see others…

— John Green

“I can tell you that the writing of a book, no matter how deeply, profoundly personal-if it is literature, if you have attended to…

— Dani Shapiro

To read a novel is a difficult and complex art. You must be capable not only of great fineness of perception, but of great…

— Virginia Woolf

“If we're genuinely interested in a book we can even bring ourselves to be greatful when others draw our attention to things we've missed…

— Ian Watt

“To me reading is an almost sacred activity and the great novel is its high mass. The novel is so deeply powerful as an…

— Gregory Day

“Reading good books is like engaging in conversation with the most cultivated minds of past centuries who had composed them, or rather, taking part…

— René Descartes

“A novel worth reading is an education of the heart. It enlarges your sense of human possibility, of what human nature is, of what…

— Susan Sontag

“Reading novels needs almost as much talent as writing them,' he used to say.”

— Anthony Powell

“I would probably have to say that reading fiction — those stories fill the space that other people might use religious stories for. The…

— Tom Perrotta

“I think long and carefully about what novels ought to do. They should clarify the roles that have become obscured; they ought to identify…

— Toni Morrison

“For me, reading is so much more. Books teach you how other people think, and what they're feeling, and how they change from ordinary…

— Anonymous