#books

"Personally, I am a hedonistic reader; I have never read a book merely because it was ancient. I read books for the aesthetic emotions they offer me, and I ignore the commentaries and criticism."

"Please, no matter how we advance technologically, please don't abandon the book. There is nothing in our material world more beautiful than the book."(Acceptance speech, National Book Award 2010 (Nonfiction), November 17, 2010)"

"but for my own part, if a book is well written, I always find it too short."

"There are many, many types of books in the world, which makes good sense, because there are many, many types of people, and everybody wants to read something different."

"For masterpieces are not single and solitary births; they are the outcome of many years of thinking in common, of thinking by the body of the people, so that the experience of the mass is behind the single voice."

"Books are not made to be believed, but to be subjected to inquiry. When we consider a book, we mustn't ask ourselves what it says but what it means..."

"A precious, mouldering pleasure ’t is To meet an antique book, In just the dress his century wore; A privilege, I think."

"Good books, like good friends, are few and chosen; the more select, the more enjoyable."

"...I tell myself it does not matter what one reads--favorite authors, particular themes--as long as we read something. It is not even important to own the books."

"Books are both our luxuries and our daily bread."

"I couldn't live a week without a private library - indeed, I'd part with all my furniture and squat and sleep on the floor before I'd let go of the 1500 or so books I possess."

"Where is human nature so weak as in the bookstore?"

"Rule number one: Don't fuck with librarians."

"I read in self-defense."

"Because when I read, I don't really read; I pop a beautiful sentence into my mouth and suck it like a fruit drop, or I sip it like a liqueur until the thought dissolves in me like alcohol, infusing brain and heart and coursing on through the veins to the root of each blood vessel."

"I find Bukowski to be so edgy, gritty, and daring that he oozes romance, and if couples read him in bed they would appreciate what they have."

"Books, the children of the brain."

"I like books whose virtue is all drawn together in a page or two. I like sentences that don't budge though armies cross them."

"it is nice that nobody writes as they talk and that the printed language is different from the spoken otherwise you could not lose yourself in books and of course you do you completely do."

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