Book Quote by Philip Toynbee

Catch-22' is the big daddy of funny war novels. It's capacious and occasionally rambling. It's a bible of literate comedy: you can find anything…

— Jesse Armstrong

“Catch-22 has much passion, comic and fervent, but it gasps for want of craft and sensibility… Its author, Joseph Heller, is like a brilliant…

— Richard G. Stern

'Caught' is a novel of forgiveness, and the past and the present - who should be and who shouldn't be forgiven. None of my…

— Harlan Coben

Proust is a hero of mine. I read 'A la recherche' in one go, and I'm a very slow reader. It had an astonishing…

— Edward St Aubyn

A book exists at the intersection of the author's subconscious and the reader's response.

— William Gibson

“Be warned. This book has no literary merit whatsoever. It it a lurid piece of nonsense, convoluted, implausible, peopled by unconvincing characters, written in…

— Jonathan Barnes

I think myself I ought to be shot for writing such nonsense.... But it's unquestionably good escapist literature and I think I should rather…

— Georgette Heyer

Literature is dangerous: it awakens a rebellious attitude in us.

— Mario Vargas Llosa

Writing a novel is one of those modern rites of passage, I think, that lead us from an innocent world of contentment, drunkenness, and…

— J. G. Ballard

“One of the most egregiously stupid books I've ever come across. I would recommend reading this only because it's the epitome of all that…

— Kris Saknussemm

“But I suspect the reported number of good novels this year is a result of 9/11 and all the other alarums of recent years.…

— Sebastian Barry

Your book may be a masterpiece but do not suggest that to the publisher because many of the most hopeless manuscripts that have come…

— Stanley Unwin