Writers Reading Quotes

• Books had instant replay long before televised sports.

  Bernard Williams

  Sports, Book, Reading

  9 Copy quote

• I cannot remember the books I've read any more than the meals I have eaten; even so, they have made me.

  Ralph Waldo Emerson

  Reading, Book, Learning

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• I think we ought to read only the kind of books that wound and stab us.

  Franz Kafka

  Book, Writing, Thinking

  Franz Kafka (1979). “The Basic Kafka”, p.290, Simon and Schuster

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• The best effect of any book is that it excites the reader to self activity.

  Thomas Carlyle

  Book, Reading, Writing

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• Almost all good writing begins with terrible first efforts. You need to start somewhere.

  Anne Lamott

  Writing, Effort, Needs

  Anne Lamott (2007). “Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life”, p.25, Anchor

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• We don't need lists of rights and wrongs, tables of do's and don'ts: we need books, time, and silence. Thou shalt not is soon forgotten, but Once upon a time lasts forever.

  Philip Pullman

  Book, Rights, Silence

  Biography/Personal Quotes, www.imdb.com.

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• When I look back, I am so impressed again with the life-giving power of literature.

  Maya Angelou

  Reading, Giving, Looks

  Twitter post from Oct 26, 2016

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• Writing is the only thing that, when I do it, I don't feel I should be doing something else.

  Gloria Steinem

  Writing, Should, Feels

  17 Copy quote

• It ain't whatcha write, it's the way atcha write it.

  Jack Kerouac

  Writing, Way, Inspiration To Write

  Jack Kerouac (1995). “The Portable Jack Kerouac”, Viking Adult

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• No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.

  Mary Wortley Montagu

  Book, Reading, Library

  Mary Wortley Montagu (2015). “Letters”, p.554, Knopf Doubleday Publishing Group

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• Outside of a dog, a book is a man's best friend. Inside of a dog it's too dark to read.

  Groucho Marx

  Funny, Friendship, Education

  "Biography/Personal Quotes". www.imdb.com.

  147 Copy quote

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• The two most engaging powers of an author are to make new things familiar, familiar things new.

  William Makepeace Thackeray

  Writing, Two, Familiar

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• Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

  Henry David Thoreau

  Reading, Book, Beer

  1849 A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers,'Sunday'.

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• Fiction is the truth inside the lie.

  Stephen King

  Life, Beautiful, Truth

  Stephen King (2011). “Danse Macabre”, p.430, Simon and Schuster

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• There are many little ways to enlarge your child's world. Love of books is the best of all.

  Jackie Kennedy

  Powerful, Children, Book

  143 Copy quote

• Reading maketh a full man; conference a ready man; and writing an exact man.

  Francis Bacon

  Teacher, Military, Reading

  Essays "Of Studies" (1625)

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• Books are the quietest and most constant of friends.

  Charles William Eliot

  Book, Reading, Library

  Charles William Eliot (1926). “Charles W. Eliot: the man and his beliefs”

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• Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.

  Willa Cather

  Writing, Age, Fifteen

  Quoted in Rene¤ Rapin Willa Cather (1930).

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• Don't be dismayed by the opinions of editors, or critics. They are only the traffic cops of the arts.

  Gene Fowler

  Art, Writing, Editors

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• Planning to write is not writing. Outlining, researching, talking to people about what you're doing, none of that is writing. Writing is writing.

  E. L. Doctorow

  Inspiration, Writing, Talking

  E. L. Doctorow, Christopher D. Morris (1999). “Conversations with E.L. Doctorow”, p.9, Univ. Press of Mississippi

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• When I get a little money I buy books; and if any is left I buy food and clothes.

  Desiderius Erasmus

  Inspirational, Motivational, Money

  Desiderius Erasmus' letter to Jacob Batt, April 12, 1500.

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• Find a subject you care about and which you in your heart feel others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.

  Kurt Vonnegut

  Heart, Humor, Caring

  Kurt Vonnegut (1982). “Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage”, Dell Books

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• The most beautiful things are those that madness prompts and reason writes.

  Andre Gide

  Beautiful, Writing, Madness

  12 Copy quote

• Love of books is the best of all.

  Jackie Kennedy

  Reading, Book, Literacy

  25 Copy quote

• You must find time for reading, or surrender yourself to self-chosen ignorance.

  Confucius

  Reading, Ignorance, Self

  55 Copy quote