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
EnglishItalianoPolskiעבריתFrançaisPortuguêsفارسیEspañol中文РусскийDeutschالعربيةहिन्दी日本語ΕλληνικάLatina
Books and reading
LoveFriendshipHappinessHopeFearCourageDeathLifeTimeWarPeaceFreedomTruthWisdomKnowledgeScienceArtMusicNatureMoneyWorkPowerGodBeautyLaughterFamilySuccess and failureChangeDreamsBooks and reading
“There, little girl, don't read, You're fond of your books, I know, But Brother might mope If he had no hope Of getting ahead of you. It's dull for a boy who cannot lead. There, little girl, don't read.”
Alice Duer Miller (1874–1942) said by 1942 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I believe the secret to creative film-making is in books. That is why I tell young people to read as much as they can. It is a pity that Nigerians don’t like to read.”
Tunde Kelani (born 1948) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Piracy almost ruined me—Tunde Kelani 23 October 2016, THE PUNCH (Nigeria).
“During my four months at the bookstore, I read over one hundred and fifty books. ... That's the biggest luxury in life, right? Time. To have that time to be in one place to read ... or whatever you want — whatever your passion is.”
Jeremy Mercer (born 1971) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One who, to all the heights of learning bred, Read books and men, and practiced what he read.”
George Stepney (1663–1707) said by 1707 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: To the Earl of Carlisle, upon the Death of his Son before Luxemburg", in The Third Part of Miscellany Poems (1727), p. 131
“I get afraid, very afraid, when somebody, anybody, prescribes to me which books to read and not to read. When somebody gives me a template of what African literature ought to look like”
Shadreck Chikoti (born 1979) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Write the books that you’d like to read; that’s the only way you can be sure others will read them”
Sabata-Mpho Mokae wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“One of the things I loved about collaborating with Nick was that he was like R. A. Lafferty. Remember those old books for science fiction beginners, the ones that said “If you like Asimov, read Clement” or “If you like Sheckley, read Tenn”? And then you’d come to “If you like Lafferty, buy everything of his you can find before no one writes or thinks remotely like him.”
R. A. Lafferty (1914–2002) said by 2002 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Few things leave a deeper mark on a reader than the first book that finds its way into his heart. Those first images, the echo of words we think we have left behind, accompany us throughout our lives and sculpt a palace in our memory to which, sooner or later--no matter how many books we read, how many worlds we discover or how much we learn or forget--we will return.”
Carlos Ruiz Zafón (1964–2020) said by 2020 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“A book read by a thousand different people is a thousand different books.”
Andrei Tarkovsky (1932–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Men of learning are those who have read the contents of books. Thinkers, geniuses, and those who have enlightened the world and furthered the race of men, are those who have made direct use of the book of the world.”
Arthur Schopenhauer (1788–1860) said by 1860 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“You've got enough in here that people who get hold of this — like AP or any of the state-controlled media — they're going to focus on the soap opera aspects of your book and they're going to ignore what is truly one of the most substantive policy books I've read.”
Rush Limbaugh (1951–2021) first seen 2009 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On Sarah Palin's Going Rogue: An American Life, The Rush Limbaugh Show, November 20, 2009
“[Q:] What kind of reader were you as a child? Which childhood books and authors stick with you most? [A:] the writers that meant most to me: Alice Walker, Roald Dahl, Charlotte Brontë, Dickens, Noel Streatfeild, Andrew Salkey, L. Maud Montgomery, Louisa May Alcott. Toni Morrison because of The Black Book, which she edited — and I read, at a very delicate age, 9 or 10. But C. S. Lewis above all.”
Zadie Smith (born 1975) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: From an interview, as cited in "Zadie Smith: By the Book", The New York Times (17 November 2016)
“England did nothing in the World Cup, why are they bringing books out? 'We got beat in the quarter-finals, I played like shit, here's my book'. Who wants to read that? I don't.”
Joey Barton (born 1982) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“My whole struggle is to change the disciplines, to change the genres, to change how people look at a poem, at theory or at children's books. So I have to struggle between how many of these rules I can break and how I still can have readers read the book without getting frustrated.”
Gloria E. Anzaldúa (1942–2004) said by 2004 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“We must speak up for the children of Pakistan, India and Afghanistan who are suffering from terrorism, poverty, child labour and child trafficking. Let us help them through our voice, action and charity. Let us help them to read books and go to school. And let us not forget that even one book, one pen, one child and one teacher can change the world.”
Malala Yousafzai (born 1997) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Just to see all the books lining the shelves would lighten my mood as if by magic. Of course, I didn’t go to bookstores just to read articles on anatomy. I went because any book gave me comfort and solace at the time.”
Osamu Dazai (1909–1948) said by 1948 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“…it’s very important to remember that simply because a book has queer characters does not mean that only queer people can read them. I’m an Asian American lesbian, and I’m capable of enjoying books about straight white people. It works the other way around, too.”
Malinda Lo (born 1974) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On her encouraging readers to be open in “One Thing Leads to Another: An Interview with Malinda Lo” in Book Page (Apr 2019)
“I’m a big reader, so I read scripts like a book, and if it affects me the same way that my favourite books do, I know that’s the project I want to do.”
Madison Iseman (born 1997) first seen 2019 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: interview | madison iseman (December 4, 2019)
“... Obviously my chief authority is Xenophon's ; if I can induce anyone to read this (the Loeb translation is very vivid on the whole) and get as much pleasure out of it as I did, then I shall be — as the good books say — amply rewarded. For actual history I have gone to Cavaignac or . ... 's The Greek Commonwealth is a good book to begin on.”
Naomi Mitchison (1897–1999) first seen 1925 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: (1st printing 1925)
“I listen to music, I like to watch movies, but I don’t get time to watch them. I would like to read a god book but certainly have no time. I like human interest and stories about a family, a person and motivational books.”
Irene Mulyagonja (born 1963) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I read a great many books without finding one that satisfied my needs and so I decided to write one myself. (About his book An Introduction to the Historiography of Science, 1987.)”
Helge Kragh (born 1944) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“So backpropagation really came from me trying to understand how brains work and how you could build a brain like a brain. And when I was growing up, I read a lot of books I was excited by. There's a book called Computers and Thought, which was the start of the whole artificial intelligence world.”
Paul Werbos (born 1947) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The book to end all books. The final book. After this, there is no more writing, no more publishing.”
Peter Greenaway (born 1942) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Most chess books only sell a few thousand copies, and a book titled something like “Women in Chess” would sell even fewer. The idea with this title was to spread the book outside the competitive chess world. I’m interested in attracting readers who love chess but play only casually, and feminists interested in male dominated fields.”
Jennifer Shahade (born 1980) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“The fact is that poetry is not the books in the library . . . Poetry is the encounter of the reader with the book, the discovery of the book.”
Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Poetry" (1977)
“The exercise of letters is sometimes linked to the ambition to construct an absolute book, a book of books that includes the others like a Platonic archetype, an object whose virtues are not diminished by the passage of time.”
Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) said by 1986 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Some would argue, you know, in some of the books of the New Testament, the ending of the Book of Job is different. I think, if I'm not mistaken, there's one book where there's a more optimistic ending, which we believe was tacked on later.”
Howard Dean (born 1948) first seen 2004 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: January 3, 2004
“One of the most influential books to appear in the early seventies was a book assembled by eleven women in the Boston Women's Health Book Collective called Our Bodies, Ourselves...They quoted the English suffragette Christabel Pankhurst: “Remember the dignity/of your womanhood./Do not appeal,/do not beg,/do not grovel./Take courage/join hands,/stand beside us./Fight with us…”
Howard Zinn (1922–2010) said by 2010 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“First one gets works of art, then criticism of them, then criticism of the criticism, and, finally, a book on The Literary Situation, a book which tells you all about writers, critics, publishing, paperbacked books, the tendencies of the (literary) time, what sells and how much, what writers wear and drink and want, what their wives wear and drink and want, and so on.”
Randall Jarrell (1914–1965) said by 1965 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Harriet lived in Connecticut and influenced antislavery in her book "Uncle Tom's Cabin." Harriet was a optimist who expressed her feelings by writing. Harriet was listed as one of the people who started the civil war. She started it from one of her books (It was the most influencial book in all of American History) However, Harriet was a very successful person and never stood down.”
Harriet Beecher Stowe (1811–1896) said by 1896 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“It’s kind of an old-fashioned book…It’s long; it has a lot of characters; it takes a big theme. It isn’t a navel-staring, dysfunctional-family thing that’s so beloved of most American writers. It’s different, but I think people probably miss those books that were written some time ago – the big book that was written with care.”
Annie Proulx (born 1935) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On her novel Barkskin in “Annie Proulx: ‘I’ve had a life. I see how slippery things can be’” in The Guardian (2016 Jun 5)
“It's definitely the book that I can tell—I don't know if other people can tell but I can tell as a writer–-is probably the most divisive that I've written. It has an equal number of detractors as it does fans. It doesn't really hold true with the other books. It was the one that took the longest to write, and the one that seemed the most important at the time. It's an unwieldy book... I like it.”
Bret Easton Ellis (born 1964) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Why then, if these books for children must be retained, as they will be, should not the bible regain the place it once held as a school book ? Its morals are pure, its examples captivating and noble. The reverence for the sacred book, that is thus early impressed, lasts long; and, probably, if not impressed in infancy, never takes firm hold of the mind.”
Fisher Ames (1758–1808) first seen 1801 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Published in Palladium (January 1801), reported in Fisher Ames, John Thornton Kirkland, Works of Fisher Ames (1809), p. 134-35.
“At the 2008 Lambda Literary Awards (the awards the LGBT community gives to books ignored by straight book awards) not a single lesbian book nominated for best novel was published by a mainstream press. Our literature is disappearing at the same time we are being told we are winning our rights. How can we be equal citizens if our stories are not allowed to be part of our nation's story?”
Sarah Schulman (born 1958) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“After that, the book will fade, the way all books fade in your mind. But I hope you will remember this: A man walking fast down a dark lonely street. Quick steps and hard breathing, all wonder and need. A bell above a door and the tinkle it makes. A clerk and a ladder and warm golden light, and then: the right book exactly, at exactly the right time.”
Robin Sloan (born 1979) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“In one book, your father is a hero. In another book, he is a monster. The men who don’t have books written about them have it easier.”
Jaroslav Kalfař (born 1988) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“If you are someone who reads books to feel like you have a friend on the page, my book is not going to be the book for you…I write for people who are readers the way I'm a reader. I don't care if I dislike a character; I care if I find them interesting or they make me laugh, or if I'm trying to figure them out. I am always more interested in that.”
Gillian Flynn (born 1971) first seen 2014 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: On what she might say to potential readers in “The Gone Girl phenomenon: Gillian Flynn speaks out” in The Guardian (2014 Oct 3)
“…it’s like he’s opening the covers of a book, but a book that did what books always promised to do and never actually quite did: get you out, really out, of where you were and into somewhere better.”
Lev Grossman (born 1969) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“This book for men alone is meant, Book-worms, or bibliophiles anent, Of solid mind, of serious bent, On curious, hidden books intent, On odd research and learning.”
Henry Spencer Ashbee (1834–1900) said by 1900 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“When I first joined my local library, I read endlessly. I immediately headed for the fantasy section, fairy tales, you name it. As a teen-ager, I read every novel by Kenneth Roberts, who wrote historical novels about the Revolutionary War period. My mother used to read to me. Heidi was one of my childhood favorites.”
Richard Matheson (1926–2013) said by 2013 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Does there, I wonder, exist a being who has read all, or approximately all, that the person of average culture is supposed to have read, and that not to have read is a social sin? If such a being does exist, surely he is an old, a very old man.”
Arnold Bennett (1867–1931) said by 1931 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Journals of Arnold Bennett, ed. Newman Flower (pub. Cassell, 1932)
“A conventional good read is usually a bad read, a relaxing bath in what we know already. A true good read is surely an act of innovative creation in which we, the readers, become conspirators.”
Malcolm Bradbury (1932–2000) first seen 1987 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Sunday Times (29 November 1987).
“Some people like to read their bibles in the Hebrew; some like to read it in the Greek; I like to read it in the Holy Spirit”
Smith Wigglesworth (1859–1947) said by 1947 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Read deep! Read often! Out-READ the 'Competition'!!!”
Tom Peters (born 1942) first seen 2016 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: 20 June 2016
“No, I didn't read the budget. I hired people to read the budget. You read the budget? Well, yeah. It's the difference between somebody who's in Congress and somebody who's a governor.”
George W. Bush (born 1946) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“Truly fine poetry must be read aloud. A good poem does not allow itself to be read in a low voice or silently. If we can read it silently, it is not a valid poem: a poem demands pronunciation. Poetry always remembers that it was an oral art before it was a written art. It remembers that it was first song.”
Jorge Luis Borges (1899–1986) first seen 1977 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: The Divine Comedy" (1977)
“She says, you don’t read women authors do you?... I said, You’re way wrong. She says, Which ones have you read then? I say, I read Erica Jong!”
“I am not well read, but when I do read, I read well. [p. 124]”
Kurt Cobain (1967–1994) said by 1994 at the latest wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
“I read my eyes out and can't read half enough. … The more one reads the more one sees we have to read.”
John Adams (1735–1826) first seen 1794 wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source
Recorded in: Letter to Abigail Adams (28 December 1794), Adams Papers, Massachusetts Historical Society
“The best way, we always say, to learn to write memoirs is to read memoirs and learn from those that don't work for you as well as from those who do. Look at how they did things. Separate out the craft elements. If you want to write detective stories, read them. If you want to write historical novels, read them.”
Marge Piercy (born 1936) wikiquote, CC BY-SA 4.0 source