Quotes from Daniel Pennac

We keep quiet about what we read. Our enjoyment of a book remains a jealously guarded secret. Perhaps because there`s no need to talk, or because it takes time to distill what we've read before we can say anything. Silence is our guarantee of intimacy. We might have finished reading but we`re still living the book.

The paradoxical virtue of reading lies in distancing ourselves from the world so that we may make sense of it.

Le nostre ragioni di leggere sono strane quanto le nostre ragioni di vivere. E nessuno è autorizzato a chiederci conto di questa intimità.

When you buy a jacket, it's important the pockets are big enough for a paperback!

I have never experienced a sorrow that was not relieved by an hour of reading.

L'homme construit des maisons parce qu'il est vivant, mais il écrit des livres parce qu'il se sait mortel. Il habite en bande parce qu'il est grégaire, mais il lit parce qu'il se sait seul. Cette lecture lui est une compagnie qui ne prend la place d'aucune autre, mais qu'aucune autre compagnie ne saurait remplacer.

The question isn't whether I have time to read or not (time that nobody will ever give me, by the way), but whether I'll allow myself the pleasure of being a reader.

La faute à la télé ? Le vingtième siècle trop « visuel » ? Le dix-neuvième trop descriptif ? Et pourquoi pas le dix-huitième trop rationnel, le dix-septième trop classique, le seizième trop renaissance, Pouchkine trop russe et Sophocle trop mort ?

Quel che abbiamo letto di più bello lo dobbiamo quasi sempre a una persona cara. Ed è a una persona cara che subito ne parleremo. Forse proprio perché la peculiarità del sentimento, come del desiderio di leggere, è il fatto di preferire. Amare vuol dire, in ultima analisi, far dono delle nostre preferenze a coloro che preferiamo. E queste preferenze condivise popolano l'invisibile cittadella della nostra libertà. Noi siamo abitati da libri e da amici.

Le bonheur individuel se doit de produire des retombées collectives, faute de quoi, la société n'est qu'un rêve de prédateur.

Releer no es repetirse, es ofrecer una prueba siempre nueva de un amor infatigable.

Mais nous relisons surtout gratuitement, pour le plaisir de la répétition, la joie des retrouvailles, la mise à l'épreuve de l'intimité.

Mais c'est, plus quotidiennement, le refuge du livre contre le crépitement de la pluie, le silencieux éblouissement des pages contre la cadence du métro, le roman planqué dans le tiroir de la secrétaire, la petite lecture du prof quand planchent ses élèves, et l'élève de fond de classe lisant en douce, en attendant de rendre une copie blanche...

Time to read is always time stolen. (Like time to write, for that matter, or time to love). Stolen from what? From the tyranny of living.

Aimer c'est, finalement, faire don de nos préférences à ceux que nous préférons. Et ces partages peuplent l'invisible citadelle de notre liberté. Nous sommes habités de livres et d'amis.

All it takes is one teacher - just one - to save us from ourselves and make us forget all the others.

The teacher is commodified, the school is a shop, the subjects are consumer goods. To read, to think, to reflect, isn't a question of want, it's a question of need.

Each country thinks its school is in a specific crisis, without ever linking the school's crisis to that of the society around it.

I've never had time to read. But no one ever kept me from finishing a novel I loved.

By making time to read, like making time to love, we expand our time for living.

You can't make someone read. Just like you can't make them fall in love, or dream.

I master my doubts now. I have fun with them, they're my travelling companions.