Famous quotes

Quotes by famous people, credited to who said them. Your own quotes must not match any of these. More are added all the time. 1,158,269 quotes Who coined it · How we decide

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Books and reading

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“Books always cost more in those cities where they are least read!”
Gore Vidal (1925–2012) said by 2012 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“books are only what we want them to be; rather, what we read into them.”
Emma Goldman (1869–1940) said by 1940 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I brewed potions in a vain search for life everlasting, I read books, I sang songs of history, And today I've come home to Cold Mountain To pillow my head on the stream and wash my ears.”
Hanshan (born 800) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The books I write because I want to read them, the games because I want to play them, and stories I tell because I find them exciting personally.”
Gary Gygax (1938–2008) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: GameSpy interview, Pt. 2 (16 August 2004)
“I am a great admirer of Professor Hayek. Some of his books are absolutely supreme—“The Constitution of Liberty” and the three volumes on “Law, Legislation and Liberty”—and would be well read by almost every hon. Member.”
Margaret Thatcher (1925–2013) first seen 1981 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Speech in the House of Commons (10 March 1981)
“Friends, we represent a minority, but Literature is on our side. With so many fine books to be read, so much to be studied and known, there is no need to bore ourselves with this rubbish.”
Christopher Hitchens (1949–2011) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Edmund Wilson: Literary Companion” (quoting Wilson) (2007)
“I have met thousands of children now, and not even one time has a child come up to me and said, "Ms. Rowling, I'm so glad I've read these books because now I want to be a witch." They see it for what it is [...] It is a fantasy world and they understand that completely. I don't believe in magic, either.”
J. K. Rowling (born 1965) first seen 1999 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: As quoted in "Success of Harry Potter bowls author over", CNN (21 October 1999)
“I think the next little bit of excitement is ﬂying. I hope I am not too old to take it up seriously, nor too stupid about machines to qualify as a commercial pilot. I do not feel like spending the rest of my life writing books that no one will read. It is not as though I wanted to write them.”
Samuel Beckett (1906–1989) said by 1989 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[Cubitt hurling insults at Pinky after he refuses to lend him money] The picture Cubitt drew had got nothing to do with him: it was like the pictures men drew of Christ, the image of their own sentimentality. ...He was like a professor describing to a stranger some place he had only read in books:...when all the time it was a country the stranger knew...”
Graham Greene (1904–1991) said by 1991 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There is no reason to suppose that people today feel less than their grandfathers, but there is good reason to think that they are less able to read in a way which makes them feel. It is natural for them to blame books rather than themselves, and to demand fiction which is highly peppered, like a glutton whose palate is defective.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you can, and if you are a playgoer and a filmgoer, you should be able to find voices for all the characters in the books you read.”
Robertson Davies (1913–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So for those of you who haven't read any of my five best-selling books: Liberals are driven by Satan and lie constantly.”
Ann Coulter (born 1961) first seen 2007 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: That was no lady — That was my husband" (June 28, 2007).
“They come, an' they quit an' go on; an' every damn one of 'em's got a little piece of land in his head. An' never a God damn one of 'em ever gets it. Just like heaven. Ever'body wants a little piece of lan'. I read plenty of books out here. Nobody never gets to heaven, and nobody gets no land. It's just in their head.”
John Steinbeck (1902–1968) said by 1968 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I am dead, I hope it may be said: 'His sins were scarlet, But his books were read'.”
Hilaire Belloc (1870–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I read there [in "certain books of the Platonists"] that God the Word was born "not of flesh nor of blood, nor of the will of man, nor the will of the flesh, but of God." But, that "the Word was made flesh, and dwelt among us" — I found this nowhere there.”
Augustine of Hippo (354–430) said by 430 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“There was a time when only wise books were read helping us to bear our pain and misery. This, after all, is not quite the same as leafing through a thousand works fresh from psychiatric clinics. And yet the world is different from what it seems to be and we are other than how we see ourselves in our ravings.”
Czesław Miłosz (1911–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We read books to find out who we are.”
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) first seen 1970 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Prophets and Mirrors: Science Fiction as a Way of Seeing" in The Living Light 7:3 (Fall, 1970). Reprinted in The Language of the Night (Ultramarine Publishing, 1979).
“Josef liked to read books, not pack them.”
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“People who sleep only two or three hours in the twenty-four are always geniuses. The ones you hear about, anyway. Never mind if the ones you don’t hear about are dolts. Insomnia is genius. It must be. Think of all the work you could do, the thoughts you could think, the books you could read, the love you could make, while the dull clods lie snoring.”
Ursula K. Le Guin (1929–2018) said by 2018 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It is clear to see that it is not them but me, who had lost my self-identity. As I hide behind these books I read, while scribbling my poetry, like art could save a wretch like me, with some ideal ideology that no one can hope to achieve. And I am never real; it is just a sketch of me. And everything I have made is trite and cheap and a waste of paint, of tape, of time”
Conor Oberst (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The laurelled exiles, kneeling to kiss these sands. Number there freedom's friends. One who Within the element of endless summer, Like leaf in amber, petrified by light, Studied the root of action. One in a garret Read books as though he broke up flints.”
Stephen Spender (1909–1995) said by 1995 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In my early twenties I read all Nietzsche—not just the main works but the minor works as well, all of them, and every scrap of published correspondence. Nietzsche alone of men out of books has a share in the loyalty and affectionate gratitude which otherwise belongs only to living teachers.”
Enoch Powell (1912–1998) first seen 1962 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 'Thin But Thorough', The Times (27 September 1962), p. 15
“Your generation, always want the capital letters, never the subtext. You don’t learn to read properly, that’s the trouble. And don’t start telling me you’ve accessed books. I’m talking about the real thing, good solid paper that you can hold in your hand, and bend the page corners the way you’re not supposed to.”
Peter F. Hamilton (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Bement [her art teacher] told me things to read. He told me of exhibitions to go and see [c. 1917].. ..the two books that he told me to get were Jeromy Eddy 'Cubists and Post-impressionism' and Kandinsky 'On the Spiritual of Art'... It was some time before I really begun to use the ideas. I didn't start at until I was down in Carolina — alone — thinking things out for myself.”
Georgia O'Keeffe (1887–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Pulitzer Prize-winning author Norman Mailer died last year at the age of 84 years old. For the last 60 years of this man's life, he drank to excess every day. Uh, he was married six times. He smoked pot. He stabbed his second wife. And I've never read one of his books, but I gotta tell you I'm a huge fan.”
Ron White (born 1956) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Surprising what you can dig out of books if you read long enough, isn't it?”
Robert Jordan (1948–2007) said by 2007 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You act as if you know more than I'll ever know, but I've forgotten more than you'll ever know. You're snobs, too. Every man I've ever met has been a snob. You don't have to be a snob, too, do you? Please sign this piece of paper, so I can be a member of the public library and read books and find out about people. I don't want to hate you, I just can't help it.”
William Saroyan (1908–1981) said by 1981 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you truly love film, I think the healthiest thing to do is not read books on the subject. I prefer the glossy film magazines with their big colour photos and gossip columns, or the National Enquirer. Such vulgarity is healthy and safe.”
Werner Herzog (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let's face it; regular monthly superhero comic books have taken on the look and smell of old men's pants. It's hardly a surprise comics lost the teenage audience or that the adult audience is now bored and irritated by the endless recycling of images they've already seen and words they've already read. (2003)”
Grant Morrison (born 1960) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Supposing I was to tell you that it's just Beauty that's calling me, the beauty of the far off and unknown, the mystery and spell of the East which lures me in the books I've read, the need of the freedom of great wide spaces, the joy of wandering on and on — in quest of the secret which is hidden over there, beyond the horizon?”
Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It's queer they'd be allowin' the sick ones to read books when I'll bet it's the same lazy readin' in the house bought the half of them down with the consumption itself.”
Eugene O'Neill (1888–1953) said by 1953 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Parents should leave books lying around marked "forbidden" if they want their children to read.”
Doris Lessing (1919–2013) first seen 2003 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with Amanda Craig, "Grand dame of letters who's not going quietly", The Times (London, 23 November 2003, reprinted 3 June 2004)
“Not for naught had he gained access into darksome cults, had harkened to the grisly whispers of the votaries of Skelos under midnight trees, and read the forbidden iron-bound books of Vathelos the Blind.”
Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) said by 1936 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When you live in a small town far from the world you read about in municipal library books, the advent of repair men in the house is a festival. Daily life is gaily broken open, improvisation takes over.”
Nadine Gordimer (1923–2014) said by 2014 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The Bible is the best of all books, for it is the word of God and teaches us the way to be happy in this world and in the next. Continue therefore to read it and to regulate your life by its precepts.”
John Jay (1745–1829) first seen 1784 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Peter Augustus Jay (April 9, 1784). (citation needed, no such quotation exists in his letters collected by the National Archive)
“I found that when I talked to them in abstract terms, my ideas were not understood. The irony of it was that I, who had all but to steal books to read, had been branded as an intellectual by the one group that claimed it was dedicated to educating the oppressed and informing them with a vision of life.”
Richard Wright (1908–1960) said by 1960 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The paper was shipped up from the USA, and full of lies; since the demise of the Rosenfeld Register (which had been only half full of lies), no local paper had been permitted. But even lies could be interesting if they were new lies: why else did people read so many books and magazines?”
Harry Turtledove (born 1949) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I was never allowed to read the popular American children's books of my day because, as my mother said, the children spoke bad English without the author's knowing it.”
Edith Wharton (1862–1937) said by 1937 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I read Jack London and The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists. Those were the books that formed my political opinions.”
Arthur Scargill (born 1938) first seen 1983 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Interview with John Mortimer, quoted in John Mortimer, In Character (1983), p. 63
“You really don’t have a life when you’re working. I always think "oh, I’m gonna see everybody on my days off. I’m gonna read so many books and see so many films" and then three months go by...”
Rachel McAdams (born 1978) first seen 2008 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Rachel McAdams Interview – Married Life at Collider (6 March 2008)
“If the hunters think we do all things by chants and spells, they may believe so — it does not hurt them. I was taught how to read in the old books and how to make the old writings — that was hard and took a long time. My knowledge made me happy — it was like a fire in my heart. Most of all, I liked to hear of the Old Days and the stories of the gods.”
Stephen Vincent Benét (1898–1943) said by 1943 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The other night at a neighborhood restaurant the waiter, after mentioning he had read my books, said about himself, “I’m white, I’m nothing.” But that was what I wanted, you see, growing up in America—the freedom of being nothing, the confidence of it, the arrogance. And I achieved it.”
Richard Rodriguez (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Boredom often stems from the lack of desire to reinvent oneself. To become a Renaissance man or woman, for instance, can take an eternity. Understandably, not everyone wants to be a polymath, but there are so many great books to read, places to visit, ideas to share, new hobbies to discover, and charities to volunteer for – the bucket list is practically endless.”
Newton Lee wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“[General literacy would] teach [the poor] to despise their lot in life, instead of making them good servants in agriculture, and other laborious employment to which their rank in society has destined them;... it would enable them to read seditious pamphlets, vicious books, and publications against Christianity; it would render them insolent.”
Joseph Banks (1743–1820) said by 1820 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I do not dishonour the Bible. I honour it above all books. The New Testament alone, since I have been able to read it humanly, has to me outweighed all the literature of the world. It is because we dishonour it by making it an idol, and destroy its power by the foolish means with which we think to enhance it, that I have said what I have felt it my duty to say.”
James Anthony Froude (1818–1894) first seen 1849 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Preface, Second edition (21 June 1849)
“you're rich in love you're great bed you'll see the world you'll knock 'em dead and all the thick books that you've read will count for nothing in the end”
Amanda Palmer (born 1976) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Straight" Live (2004)
“Don’t read too much now: the dude Who lets the girl down before The hero arrives, the chap Who’s yellow and keeps the store, Seem far too familiar. Get stewed: Books are a load of crap.”
Philip Larkin (1922–1985) first seen 1960 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: A Study of Reading Habits" [20 August 1960]
“As a dreamer of dreams and a travelin' man, I have chalked up many a mile. Read dozens of books about heroes and crooks, And I've learned much from both of their styles.”
Jimmy Buffett (1946–2023) said by 2023 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My conversations with him drove me to pour over the Quran and the books of the Islamic law, hoping to find something to contradict what he said. I couldn’t change the reality of what I read. As a Muslim, I realized I had two options:”
Mark A. Gabriel (born 1957) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Let me first state forthright that contrary to what we've often read in books and heard from preachers, when you are a woman, you don't feel like the Devil.”
Orhan Pamuk (born 1952) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source