#books

"After nourishment, shelter and companionship, stories are the thing we need most in the world."

"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."

"I thought: pity the poor in spirit who know neither the enchantment nor the beauty of language."

"It has long been my belief that everyone's library contains an Odd Shelf. On this shelf rests a small, mysterious corpus of volumes whose subject matter is completely unrelated to the rest of the library, yet which, upon closer inspection, reveals a good deal about its owner."

"I love books. I like that the moment you open one and sink into it you can escape from the world, into a story that's way more interesting that yours will ever be."

"Even if you are alone you wage war with yourself."

"Nothing was truly unbearable if you had something to read."

"The best morals kids get from any book is just the capacity to empathize with other people, to care about the characters and their feelings. So you don't have to write a preachy book to do that. You just have to make it a fun book with characters they care about, and they will become better people as a result."

"There are many horrible sights in the multiverse. Somehow, though, to a soul attuned to the subtle rhythms of a library, there are few worse sights than a hole where a book ought to be.Someone had stolen a book."

"We lusty bibliophiles know that reading, unlike just about anything else, is both good for you and loads of fun."

"Sometimes, you read a book and it fills you with this weird evangelical zeal, and you become convinced that the shattered world will never be put back together unless and until all living humans read the book."

"We read books to find out who we are. What other people, real or imaginary, do and think and feel... is an essential guide to our understanding of what we ourselves are and may become."

"It is time to float on the waters of the night. Time to wrap my arms around this book and press it to my chest, life preserver in a sea of unremarkable men and women, anonymous faces on the street, a hundred thousand unalphabetized things, a million forgotten hours."

"I wrote an edible cookbook. The pages are made out of tortillas. It’s also the Book of Love. (Batteries and hot sauce sold separately.)"

"The book thief has struck for the first time – the beginning of an illustrious career."

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

"But there is in everything a reasonable division of labour. I have written the book, and nothing on earth would induce me to read it."

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

"Books can be dangerous. The best ones should be labeled "This could change your life."

"Give me books, French wine, fruit, fine weather and a little music played out of doors by somebody I do not know."