Poetry is not the most important thing in life. . . I'd much rather lie in a hot bath reading Agatha Christie and sucking sweets.
One feels like crawling on all fours after reading your work.
A man is known by the books he reads.
Students will read if we give them the books, the time, and the enthusiastic encouragement to do so. If we make them wait for the one unit a year in which they are allowed to choose their own books and become readers, they may never read at all. To keep our students reading, we have to let them.
I've always loved reading fantasy. I used to pick out all the books in the library that had the little unicorn sticker on the side to show that they were fantasy.
When you learn to read you will be born again. . . and you will never be quite so alone again.
To write a novel may be pure pleasure. To live a novel presents certain difficulties. As for reading a novel, I do my best to get out of it.
When you pick up a script and you can't stop reading it because it's a real page-turner, that's a good sign.
Reading just had a great five-man move that involved everyone.
When I was done reading the poem, everyone was quiet. A very sad quiet. But the amazing thing was that it wasn’t a bad sad at all. It was just something that made everyone look around at each other and know that they were there. Sam and Patrick looked at me. And I looked at them. And I think they knew. Not anything specific really. They just knew. And I think that’s all you can ever ask from a friend.
Solitary reading will enable a man to stuff himself with information, but without conversation his mind will become like a pond without an outlet-a mass of unhealthy stag-nature. It is not enough to harvest knowledge by study; the wind of talk must winnow it and blow away the chaff. Then will the clear, bright grains of wisdom be garnered, for our own use or that of others.
I try not to think too much about an audience when Im writing the first draft of a book - at that stage, the prospect of anyone reading what Ive written would be enough to scare me into setting my laptop on fire.
Reading music is like listening to flowers. I don't understand the concept.
Reading without purpose is sauntering not exercise.
Many messages are just thanking a stranger for a kindness. . . I love those ones, because I imagine everyone else reading them feels encouraged by such examples of humanity and generosity and tenderness. And if they encourage us to reach out to strangers more often, that's a good thing.
I am not a fatalist. I have just been reading War and Peace and Tolstoy is such a fatalist. I think people can make a difference. . . I am an optimist who worries a lot.
I've never been able to read for anything, and every time I have, I've never gotten the part. And I don't know why that is. I just can't. Reading or auditioning for something. . . It's like it's this mental block in my brain, and I just can't do it. But when people ask you to do stuff without making you go through that, it's a much more pleasant experience.
My early and invincible love of reading I would not exchange for all the riches of India.
Reading is the basic springboard for learning. And books provide the liftoff. They are the great equalizer, opening up new worlds to everyone.
You can't develop character by reading books. You develop it from conflict.