books

"For all the books in his possession, he still failed to read the stories written plain as day in the faces of the people around him."

"Early on I set out to write the next Great American Novel, and then later on I set out the silverware and enjoyed my dinner in silence."

"When a reader falls in love with a book, it leaves its essence inside him, like radioactive fallout in an arable field, and after that there are certain crops that will no longer grow in him, while other, stranger, more fantastic growths may occasionally be produced."[Books vs. Goons, L.A. Times, April 24, 2005]"

"I don't believe in the kind of magic in my books. But I do believe something very magical can happen when you read a good book."

"Booksellers are the most valuable destination for the lonely, given the numbers of books written because authors couldn't find anyone to talk to."

"What I say is, a town isn’t a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it’s got a bookstore, it knows it’s not foolin’ a soul."

"Just like heaven. Ever’body wants a little piece of lan’. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It’s just in their head. They’re all the time talkin’ about it, but it’s jus’ in their head."

"I do things like get in a taxi and say, "The library, and step on it."

"A book has but one voice, but it does not instruct everyone alike."

"They're book addicts."

"Some say life is the thing, but I prefer reading."

"If you truly love a book, you should sleep with it, write in it, read aloud from it, and fill its pages with muffin crumbs."

"I suppose it’s not a social norm, and not a manly thing to do — to feel, discuss feelings. So that’s what I’m giving the finger to. Social norms and stuff…what good are social norms, really? I think all they do is project a limited and harmful image of people. It thus impedes a broader social acceptance of what someone, or a group of people, might actually be like."

"I’m trying to translate what my cat says and put it in a book, but how many homonyms are there for meow?"

"What a blessing it is to love books. Everybody must love something, and I know of no objects of love that give such substantial and unfailing returns as books and a garden."

"The most terrible poverty is loneliness, and the feeling of being unloved."

"Old books that we have known but not possessed cross our path and invite themselves over. New books try to seduce us daily with tempting titles and tantalizing covers."

"When I want to read a novel, I write one."

"I would like my personal reading map to resemble a map of the British Empire circa 1900."

"There's nothing wrong with reading a book you love over and over. When you do, the words get inside you, become a part of you, in a way that words in a book you've read only once can't."