Books Quotes - What an
astonishing thing a book is
“For
some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a
miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds
world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or
excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They
show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.”
―
Anne Lamott, Bird by Bird
“Books:
a beautifully browsable invention that needs no electricity and exists in a
readable form no matter what happens.”
―
Nicholson Baker
“We
are of opinion that instead of letting books grow moldy behind an iron grating,
far from the vulgar gaze, it is better to let them wear out by being read.”
―
Jules Verne, Journey to the Center of the Earth
“If
only there could be an invention that bottled up a memory, like scent. And it
never faded, and it never got stale. And then, when one wanted it, the bottle
could be uncorked, and it would be like living the moment all over again.”
―
Daphne du Maurier, Rebecca
“There
is more treasure in books than in all the pirates' loot on Treasure Island and
best of all, you can enjoy these riches every day of your life.”
―
Walt Disney
“Some
of these things are true and some of them lies. But they are all good stories.”
―
Hilary Mantel, Wolf Hall
“Let
children read whatever they want and then talk about it with them. If parents
and kids can talk together, we won't have as much censorship because we won't
have as much fear.”
―
Judy Blume
“Any
book that helps a child to form a habit of reading, to make reading one of his
deep and continuing needs, is good for him.”
―
Maya Angelou
“What
an astonishing thing a book is. It's a flat object made from a tree with
flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one
glance at it and you're inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead
for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and
silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of
human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens
of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that
humans are capable of working magic."
[Cosmos,
Part 11: The Persistence of Memory (1980)]”
―
Carl Sagan, Cosmos
“Books
were safer than other people anyway.”
―
Neil Gaiman, The Ocean at the End of the Lane
“I
owe everything I am and everything I will ever be to books.”
―
Gary Paulsen, Shelf Life: Stories by the Book
“Sections
in the bookstore
-
Books You Haven't Read
-
Books You Needn't Read
-
Books Made for Purposes Other Than Reading
-
Books Read Even Before You Open Them Since They Belong to the Category of Books
Read Before Being Written
-
Books That If You Had More Than One Life You Would Certainly Also Read But
Unfortunately Your Days Are Numbered
-
Books You Mean to Read But There Are Others You Must Read First
-
Books Too Expensive Now and You'll Wait 'Til They're Remaindered
-
Books ditto When They Come Out in Paperback
-
Books You Can Borrow from Somebody
-
Books That Everybody's Read So It's As If You Had Read Them, Too
-
Books You've Been Planning to Read for Ages
-
Books You've Been Hunting for Years Without Success
-
Books Dealing with Something You're Working on at the Moment
-
Books You Want to Own So They'll Be Handy Just in Case
-
Books You Could Put Aside Maybe to Read This Summer
-
Books You Need to Go with Other Books on Your Shelves
-
Books That Fill You with Sudden, Inexplicable Curiosity, Not Easily Justified
-
Books Read Long Ago Which It's Now Time to Re-read
-
Books You've Always Pretended to Have Read and Now It's Time to Sit Down and
Really Read Them”
―
Italo Calvino, If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler
