Quotes About Books

Books choose their authors; the act of creation is not entirely a rational and conscious one.

Burn the books and trust the Book; shred the papers and hear the Word.

Had he, as a child, intuited something and then, afraid of what he had guessed, buried the intuition so deep that he retained no memory of it? And could books, some books, gain access to those hidden chambers and use what they found there?

The world of books continued to send him messages. Bharati Mukherjee and Clark Blaise wrote from America to tell him that people were making I AM SALMAN RUSHDIE button badges and proudly wearing them as a sign of their solidarity. He wanted one of those badges. Maybe Joseph Anton could wear a badge in solidarity with the person he both was and was not. Gita Mehta told him by telephone, a little waspishly, that "The Satanic Verses is not your Lear. Shame is your Lear.

Free people write books," it said. "Free people publish books. Free people sell books. Free people buy books. Free people read books. In the spirit of America's commitment to free expression we inform the public that this book will be available to readers at bookshops and libraries throughout the country.

If we cannot find our way to a time when most of us are willing to admit that, at the very least, we are not sure whether or not God wrote some of our books, then we need only count the days to Armageddon—because God has given us far many more reasons to kill one another than to turn the other cheek.

Presumably, God could have written these books any way He wanted. And if He wanted them to be understood in the spirit of twenty-first-century secular rationality, He could have left out all those bits about stoning people to death for adultery or witchcraft.

It makes no sense at all to have the most important features of our lives anchored to divisive claims about the unique sanctity of ancient books or to rumors of ancient miracles. There

But the real tragedy was that 15 hadn't been colored yet. (telling Gator fans that a fire at Auburn's football dorm had destroyed 20 books

I like writing for children. It seems to me that most people underestimate their understanding and the strength of their feelings and in my books for them I try to put this right.

I think my weakness as a writer is a limited imagination, and I think my strength is a talent for reflecting the world, or sort of curating things out of the world and putting them into books.

I have never known any distress that an hour's reading did not relieve.

Even in the most stressed times there is always time for reading.

Three keys to success: read, read, read.

Whether I'm at the office, at home, or on the road, I always have a stack of books I'm looking forward to reading.

The book salesman should be honored because he brings to our attention, as a rule, the very books we need most and neglect most.

The success of many books is due to the affinity between the mediocrity of the author's ideas and those of the public.

I had my success too soon. Three books published with Scribners in New York before I was 30.

The fact that the commercial success of my books has allowed me to buy a house for myself and my daughter I think is a lovely thing. I don't think there is anything wrong with that.

Success is not measured by bestseller lists. Certain types of great books sell very well; other types of great books don't sell a lot. But they're both great.

I found that with one hundred and fifty well- chosen books, a man possesses a complete summary of all human knowledge, or at least all that a man need really know.

I found out that with one hundred and fifty well-chosen books a man possesses, if not a complete summary of all human knowledge, at least all that a man need really know.

Century also had shelves of obsolete printed books.

She likes to read, she reads all the time, and she prefers to be reading several things at once, she says it gives endless perspective and dimension.