Best reading & would-be Quotes | Short & Famous Sayings

“I hate to think of a day where a compelling book or a compelling authorial voice would be lost simply because that person doesn't have a Web site. But I think that, to use the Internet in a positive way, to turn people on to reading, is something that authors shouldn't really shy away from necessarily.”

People Thinking Way Persons Book Use Would Be Hate Turns Reading Lost Voice Internet I Hate Shy Compelling Site

Author:Marisha Pessl

“I'm not a masochistic reader. If something is just too dense or not enjoyable, even though I'm told it should be good for me, I'll put it down. That said, most of what I read would be considered high-end or good for you, I suppose. But, I also think that reading should be enjoyable.”

Ifs Thinking Should Said Ends Would Be Reading Reader Be Good Enjoyable Dense Masochistic

Author:Josh Radnor

“My perfect day is constantly changing. Right now, it would be to lie around in a hammock reading with a portable phone and a table of food next to it. I would spend all day there. And that's all that I can possibly come up with on the spur of the moment.”

I Can Moments Would Be Lying Reading Next Perfect Right Now Tables Phones Come Up Spurs Perfect Days Hammocks Spur Of The Moment

Author:Eric Stoltz

“I read everything by Ian McEwan, he is so elegant. I love reading anything about Shakespeare, too. He is my first love. If I had a time machine, I would be hanging out with him.”

Ifs Firsts Would Be Reading Machines Hanging Out First Love Elegant Love Of Reading Time Machine

Author:Kate Fleetwood

“As a Jew reading about Jesus, I thought, 'He's a pretty good guy.' It's the same conclusion Monty Python drew in 'Life of Brian' - if people actually live what he did, it would be a pretty good world. But Jesus and Christianity have a tenuous relationship at best.”

People Ifs World Would Be Guy Reading Jesus Christianity Jew Conclusion Good Guy Brian Python Monty

Author:David Javerbaum

“We may be sure that the characteristic blindness of the twentieth century [...] lies where we have never suspected it [...] The only palliative is [...] by reading old books. [...] the books of the future would be just as good [...], but unfortunately we cannot get at them.”

May Book Would Be Lying Reading Century Characteristics Blindness Twentieth Century Old Books

Author:C. S. Lewis

“I never tell students they cannot read a book they pick up, but I do guide them toward books that I think would be a good fit for them. I think of myself as a reading mentor-a reader who can help them find books they might like.”

Thinking Book Helping Might Would Be Reading Students Reader Fit Picks Guides Mentor

Book:Reading in the Wild: The Book Whisperer's Keys to Cultivating Lifelong Reading Habits

Source: Reading in the Wild: The Book Whisperer's Keys to Cultivating Lifelong Reading Habits

“I was one of those kids who had books on them. Before weddings, Bar Mitzvahs, funerals and anything else where you're actually meant to not be reading, my family would frisk me and take the book away. If they didn't find it by this point in the procedure, I would be sitting over in that corner completely unnoticed just reading my book.”

Ifs Book Would Be Kids Reading Sitting My Family Corners Bars Funeral Procedures Unnoticed Bar Mitzvah Mitzvah

Author:Neil Gaiman

“Anne Pitkin's poems have such lyrical sweep, such a sensitive eye for the natural world as it touches the human, that reading Winter Arguments is like seeing a landscape or, better, a richly realized painting of a landscape dotted with figures. But that would leave out their music, which would be a loss. This is a wise and graceful book by a well-traveled woman who knows how to confront deep feeling and frame it to make it all the more intense.”

“The age seems sore from excess of stimulation, just as a day or two after a thorough Debauch and long sustained Drinking-match a man feels all over like a Bruise. Even to admire otherwise than on the whole and where "I admire" is but a synonyme for "I remember, I liked it very much when I was reading it ," is too much an effort, would be too disquieting an emotion!”

Men Feels Long Two Whole Seems Would Be Age Remember Reading Effort Emotion Too Much Drinking Admire Excess Thorough Bruises Stimulation

Book:Letters, conversations, and recollections [ed. by T.Allsop].

Source: Letters, conversations, and recollections [ed. by T.Allsop].

“Back at the Chateau Windsor there was a rat-like scratching at the door of my room. Vinod, the youngest servant, came in with a soda water. He placed it next to the bag of toffees. Then he watched me read. I was used to being observed reading. Sometimes the room would fill like a railway station at rush hour and I would be expected to cure widespread boredom”

Sometimes Would Be Used Reading Next Water Hours Rooms Doors Expected Cures Servant Boredom Bags Stations Rats Railway Soda Rush Hour Windsor Railway Station Toffee

Author:Tahir Shah

“What Orwell feared were those who would ban books. What Huxley feared was that there would be no reason to ban a book, for there would be no one who wanted to read one. Orwell feared those who would deprive us of information. Huxley feared those who would give us so much that we would be reduced to passivity and egoism. Orwell feared that the truth would be concealed from us. Huxley feared the truth would be drowned in a sea of irrelevance.”

“It is time to return to close reading, to a serious and painstaking examination of an author's methods, of his style. Do not be deterred by headaches. First of all, this would be proof of your lack of stamina. And then, migraines, piercing pain and sudden stabs at the temples are more likely the effects of syphilis than of hard work.”

Firsts Hard Would Be Pain Reading Effects Style Serious Hard Work Return Criticism Method Proof Temples Examination Headache Stamina Piercings Syphilis Migraine Close Reading

Author:Louis Aragon

“I must suppose that reading wonderful writers may, inadvertently, teach an avid reader a great deal -- not only about life and other matters, but about how to write. Therefore doubtless I have benefited from frequent immersions in the glowing genius of others. It would be nice to think so. (I do actually think so). But to improve my skills will never be the prompting force of my reading -- that's just literary lust.”

Thinking Writing May Matter Would Be Reading Force Deals Teach Nice Wonderful Reader Genius Skills Lust Being Nice Glowing Avid Immersion

Author:Tanith Lee

“You may be sitting in a room reading this book. Imagine one note struck upon the piano. Immediately that one note is enough to change the atmosphere of the room - proving that the sound element in music is a powerful and mysterious agent, which it would be foolish to deride or belittle.”

May Book Enough Would Be Reading Sound Rooms Powerful Imagine Prove Elements Music Is Sitting Notes Foolish Mysterious Agents Atmosphere Piano Belittle

Book:What to Listen For in Music

Source: What to Listen For in Music

“I try to just be open to what the next experience is and how it makes me feel, just reading a project, or trying to get involved with a project, or thinking about a project, and what particular emotional flavor that brings. To me, it's never really about planning the next thing, or the career arc. It's about investigating how I feel, from project to project, and finding things that I haven't explored and what that would be like.”

Thinking Feels Trying Would Be Reading Next Careers Havens Emotional Particular Involved Findings Projects Planning Flavor Get Involved Arcs Investigating Feels Just

Author:Chiwetel Ejiofor

“books are brain food. If every American would purchase the equivalent of his weight in books each year, this country would be a different place.”

Ifs Years Book Different Country Would Be Reading Brain Weight Book Reading Different Place

Author:Patricia Schroeder

“A book consists of two layers: on top, the readable layer ... and underneath, a layer that was inaccessible. You only sense its existence in a moment of distraction from the literal reading, the way you see childhood through a child. It would take forever to tell what you see, and it would be pointless.”

Way Children Two Book Moments Would Be Reading Existence Forever Childhood Distraction Layers Pointless Literal Inaccessible

Author:Marguerite Duras

“Blessed is he who invented recording! But what a pity that he was not born centuries earlier! Think only of all that we would be able to hear and therefore understand better. Oh, the unending research in libraries and museums, the readings and collations of texts, the maddening desire to know the truth!”

Thinking Knows Would Be Able Desire Reading Born Music Century Research Blessed Library Pity Museums Unending

Author:Wanda Landowska

“I suppose you know where this country would be, where the world would be, if everyone who got depressed by the papers stopped reading them.”

Ifs Knows World Country Would Be Reading Paper Newspapers Papers

Book:DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE

Source: DIARY OF A MAD HOUSEWIFE

“There is a strong conservative instinct in the average man or woman, born of the hereditary fear of life, that prompts them to cling to old standards, or, if too intelligent to look inhospitably upon progress, to move very slowly. Both types are the brakes and wheelhorses necessary to a stable civilization, but history, even current history in the newspapers, would be dull reading if there were no adventurous spirits willing to do battle for new ideas.”

“Speak Peace sums up decades of healing and peacework. It would be hard to list all the kinds of people who can benefit from reading this book, because it's really any and all of us.”

People Kind Book Hard Would Be Reading Speak Healing Communication Benefits Decades Lists Nonviolent Communication

Author:Michael N. Nagler

“I try not to think too much about an audience when Im writing the first draft of a book - at that stage, the prospect of anyone reading what Ive written would be enough to scare me into setting my laptop on fire.”

Thinking Writing Trying Firsts Book Enough Would Be Reading Audience Fire Too Much Written Stage Setting Settings Scare Laptops

Author:Robin Wasserman

“If behind the erratic gunfire of the press the author felt that there was another kind of criticism, the opinion of people readingfor the love of reading, slowly and unprofessionally, and judging with great sympathy and yet with great severity, might this not improve the quality of his work? And if by our means books were to become stronger, richer, and more varied, that would be an end worth reaching.”

Source: ON READING: Le plaisir de lire

“... if this world were anything near what it should be there would be no more need of a Book Week than there would be a of a Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children.”

Ifs World Needs Should Children Book Would Be Reading Week This World Cruelty Reading Books Prevention

Book:A month of Saturdays: thirty-one famous pieces by

Source: A month of Saturdays: thirty-one famous pieces by

“My hobbies away from horse racing would be reading and painting; I love art.”

Art Would Be Reading Painting Horse Racing Hobbies Horse Racing

Author:Chantal Sutherland

“If I had the opportunity to say a fine word to all the young people of America, it would be this: Don't think too much about yourselves. Try to cultivate the habit of thinking of others; this will reward you. Nourish your minds by good reading, constant reading. Discover what your lifework is, work in which you can do most good, in which you can be happiest. Be unafraid in all things when you know you are in the right.”

“But reading is not idleness?it is the passive, receptive side of civilization without which the active and creative world would be meaningless. It is the immortal spirit of the dead realised within the bodies of the living. It is sacramental.”

World Body Would Be Spirit Reading Sides Creative Civilization Active Immortal Meaningless Passive Idleness Realised Receptive

Author:Stephen Spender

“Audiences, whether they're seeing a film or a reading or whatever it is, a concert, they decide very quickly what kind of show it is, and then they judge it. They judge the rest of the thing by whether it conforms to their rules for what a good symphony orchestra would be.”

Kind Shows Would Be Film Reading Audience Seeing Judging Concerts Conform Orchestra Symphony Symphony Orchestras

Author:Laurie Anderson

“I realized that my book readings were boring me. I was going to go up there and read a passage and sleepwalk through the whole event and I needed to make it more interesting. I wanted to be running and jumping and do something so that the event would be so exciting. I had to trick myself into having fun every time.”

Book Whole Would Be Running Wanted Reading Fun Interesting Events Needed Exciting Boring I Realized Tricks Having Fun Passages Jumping Book Reading

Author:Chuck Palahniuk

“People adore bad reviews. Nobody would be interested in reading the good ones.”

People Would Be Reading Reviews Adore Bad Reviews

Author:Jay Rayner

“Twenty times, in the course of my late reading, have I been on the point of breaking out, 'this would be the best of all possible worlds, if there were no religion in it!' But in this exclamation, I should have been as fanatical as Bryant or Cleverly. Without religion, this world would be something not fit to be mentioned in public company-I mean hell.”

Source: John Adams: a biography in his own words

“It should be possible to exist with only a short shelf of books, to read and give away. After all - we may not open a book, once read, for ten years or more. But the act of reading has made it part of us - to relinquish it would be to lose an extension of our being.”

Giving Should Years May Made Book Would Be Reading Loses Ten Made It Shelves Extensions

Author:Pam Brown

“I would not like to direct, I would be one of those terrible directors who can't help line reading the actors their lines, because I would just want to be doing their parts.”

Want Helping Would Be Reading Actors Lines Terrible Directors Direct

Author:Ruby Bentall

“The Chinese are quite entrepreneurial. Remember when Lenovo bought IBM's PC division. It was said that China didn't need a brand name, China didn't need to buy Lenovo to get into the PC business, I remember reading a one-liner somewhere which struck me as quite possibly true, it said the one thing that the Chinese had not been able to copy or figure out was the way, in terms of systems, that Americans - it probably would be true for Europeans as well - that Americans install and live by their management systems, while China is still quite half-assed. Perhaps that is a true statement.”

“It drives me crazy to do readings of my books, because if I read anything I've written in the past, I'd like to almost rewrite everything. If I could, I'd completely rewrite Fargo Rock City, and every sentence would be just slightly different. In all likelihood, most of them wouldn't be any better. Some of them would just be changed back to whatever form they used to be, before I second-guessed myself the first time.”

Ifs Firsts Book Different Would Be Past Form Used Reading Cities Written Crazy Rocks Changed First Time Sentences Used To Be If I Could Likelihood Drive Me Crazy Fargo

Author:Chuck Klosterman

“It would be hard for me to overestimate the importance of reading. Nothing can expand the mind and heart like the magic al world of books. .... Our libraries are an essential resource for our children, our communities, and our future.”

“Suppose there were an experience machine that would give you any experience you desired. Superduper neuropsychologists could stimulate your brain so that you would think and feel you were writing a great novel, or making a friend, or reading an interesting book. All the time you would be floating in a tank, with electrodes attached to your brain. Should you plug into this machine for life, preprogramming your life experiences?...Of course, while in the tank you won't know that you're there; you'll think that it's all actually happening...Would you plug in?”

Source: Anarchy, state, and utopia

“The reason I moved to Nashville was because I was reading biographies of a lot of my country music heroes, and I thought it would be better to actually go where the history was, as opposed to just reading about it.”

Country Reason Would Be Reading Hero Moved Biographies Nashville Reading Biographies

Author:Lindi Ortega

“The Library didn't only contain magical books, the ones which are chained to their shelves and are very dangerous. It also contained perfectly ordinary books, printed on commonplace paper in mundane ink. It would be a mistake to think that they weren't also dangerous, just because reading them didn't make fireworks go off in the sky. Reading them sometimes did the more dangeous trick of making fireworks go off in the privacy of the reader's brain.”

Thinking Book Sometimes Would Be Reading Mistake Brain Sky Dangerous Reader Paper Ordinary Library Tricks Privacy Shelves Ink Printed Mundane Commonplace Fireworks Chained

Book:Soul Music: (Discworld Novel 16)

Source: Soul Music: (Discworld Novel 16)

“I didn't feel the need for anonymous affection, for people in the dark applauding. To me, it would be like writing a novel and then getting up every night and reading your novel. Everything I did is on the record and, if you want to hear it, just listen to the record.”

People Ifs Want Needs Feels Writing Would Be Night Reading Dark Novel Records Affection Every Night Just Listen

Author:Tom Lehrer

Reading Quotes

Related topics

Reading Quotes