Books Quotes - People
disappear when they die
“It's
not all bad. Heightened self-consciousness, apartness, an inability to join in,
physical shame and self-loathing—they are not all bad. Those devils have been
my angels. Without them I would never have disappeared into language,
literature, the mind, laughter and all the mad intensities that made and unmade
me.”
―
Stephen Fry, Moab Is My Washpot
“A
quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to
people to whom it is easy to do good, and who are not accustomed to have it
done to them; then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature,
books, music, love for one's neighbor — such is my idea of happiness.”
―
Leo Tolstoy, Семейное счастие
“It's
not that I don't like people. It's just that when I'm in the company of others
- even my nearest and dearest - there always comes a moment when I'd rather be
reading a book.”
―
Maureen Corrigan, Leave Me Alone, I'm Reading: Finding and Losing Myself in
Books
“Doctor
Who: You want weapons? We're in a library. Books are the best weapon in the
world. This room's the greatest arsenal we could have. Arm yourself!
(from
Tooth and Claw in Season 2)”
―
Russell T. Davies
“Books
to the ceiling,
Books
to the sky,
My
pile of books is a mile high.
How
I love them! How I need them!
I'll
have a long beard by the time I read them.”
―
Arnold Lobel
“Reading
a book is like re-writing it for yourself. You bring to a novel, anything you
read, all your experience of the world. You bring your history and you read it
in your own terms.”
―
Angela Carter
“I
am not absentminded. It is the presence of mind that makes me unaware of
everything else.”
―
G.K. Chesterton
“People
disappear when they die. Their voice, their laughter, the warmth of their
breath. Their flesh. Eventually their bones. All living memory of them ceases.
This is both dreadful and natural. Yet for some there is an exception to this
annihilation. For in the books they write they continue to exist. We can
rediscover them. Their humor, their tone of voice, their moods. Through the
written word they can anger you or make you happy. They can comfort you. They
can perplex you. They can alter you. All this, even though they are dead. Like
flies in amber, like corpses frozen in the ice, that which according to the
laws of nature should pass away is, by the miracle of ink on paper, preserved.
It is a kind of magic.”
―
Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale
“From
that time on, the world was hers for the reading. She would never be lonely
again, never miss the lack of intimate friends. Books became her friends and
there was one for every mood. There was poetry for quiet companionship. There
was adventure when she tired of quiet hours. There would be love stories when
she came into adolescence and when she wanted to feel a closeness to someone
she could read a biography. On that day when she first knew she could read, she
made a vow to read one book a day as long as she lived.”
―
Betty Smith, A Tree Grows in Brooklyn
“The
books - the generous friends who met me without suspicion - the merciful
masters who never used me ill!”
―
Wilkie Collins, Armadale
“Elend:
I kind of lost track of time…
Breeze:
For two hours?
Elend:
There were books involved.”
―
Brandon Sanderson, The Well of Ascension
“Go,
my book, and help destroy the world as it is.”
―
Russell Banks, Continental Drift
“Books
are the treasured wealth of the world and the fit inheritance of generations
and nations.”
―
Henry David Thoreau, Walden
“A
book is made from a tree. It is an assemblage of flat, flexible parts (still
called "leaves") imprinted with dark pigmented squiggles. One glance
at it and you hear the voice of another person, perhaps someone dead for
thousands of years. Across the millennia, the author is speaking, clearly and
silently, inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of
human inventions, binding together people, citizens of distant epochs, who
never knew one another. Books break the shackles of time ― proof that humans
can work magic.”
―
Carl Sagan
“There
is something about words. In expert hands, manipulated deftly, they take you
prisoner. Wind themselves around your limbs like spider silk, and when you are
so enthralled you cannot move, they pierce your skin, enter your blood, numb
your thoughts. Inside you they work their magic.”
―
Diane Setterfield, The Thirteenth Tale
“That's
what I love about reading: one tiny thing will interest you in a book, and that
tiny thing will lead you to another book, and another bit there will lead you
onto a third book. It's geometrically progressive - all with no end in sight,
and for no other reason than sheer enjoyment.”
―
Mary Ann Shaffer, The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society
“If
you don’t like to read, you haven’t found the right book.”
―
J.K Rowling
“I
am simply a 'book drunkard.' Books have the same irresistible temptation for me
that liquor has for its devotee. I cannot withstand them.”
―
L.M. Montgomery
“Why
can't people just sit and read books and be nice to each other?”
―
David Baldacci, The Camel Club
“When
we read a story, we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four
walls. What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the
story. And this is possible because the story's voice makes everything its
own.”
―
John Berger, Keeping a Rendezvous: Essays
“Picking
five favorite books is like picking the five body parts you'd most like not to
lose.”
―
Neil Gaiman
