...Quotes on Reading, Writing @ Literature...

bianglala

"Just as little as a reader today reads all of the individual words (let alone syllables) on a page—rather he picks about five words at random out of twenty and "guesses" at the meaning that probably belongs to these five words—just as little do we see a tree exactly and completely with reference to leaves, twigs, color, and form; it is so very much easier for us to simply improvise some approximation of a tree. Even in the midst of the strangest experiences we will still do the same: we make up the major part of the experience and can scarcely be forced not to contemplate some event as its "inventors." All this means: basically and from time immemorial we are—accustomed to lying. Or to put it more virtuously and hypocritically, in short, more pleasantly: one is much more of an artist than one knows."

- Friedrich Nietzsche (Beyond Good and Evil)

bianglala

"Think not of the fragility of life, but of the power of books, when mere words can change our lives simply by being next to each other."

- Kamand Kojouri

bianglala

"Read and search for the answers you seek."

- Lailah Gifty Akita

bianglala

He loved books and wrote of them: "if you cannot read all your books, at any rate handle or, as it were, fondle them: peer into them, let them fall open where they will, read from the first sentence that arrests the eye, set them back on their shelves with your own hands, arrange them on your own plan so that if you do not know what it is in them, you will at least know where they are. Let them be your friends. Let them, at any rate, be your acquaintances."

- William Manchester (The Last Lion: Volume 1: Winston Churchill: Visions of Glory, 1874 - 1932)

seribulan

I read like the flame reads the wood.
Alfred Dblin

bianglala

"The taste for books was an early one. As a child he was sometimes found at midnight by a page still reading. They took his taper away, and he bred glow-worms to serve his purpose. They took the glow-worms away, and he almost burnt the house down."

Orlando : Virginia Woolf

bianglala

"And so it was literature that brought me back to life during this time."

When Breath Becomes Air : Dr. Paul Kalanithi

bianglala

"Read the best books first, otherwise you’ll find you do not have time."

Henry David Thoreau

bianglala

"One must always be careful of books, and what is inside them, for words have the power to change us."

Clockwork Angel : Cassandra Clare

bianglala

“Read all the books that make you whole.
Read all the books that pull you out of the present and into the future.
Read all the books about women who get tattoos, and break hearts, and rob banks, and start heavy metal bands.
Read every single one of them.”

Juliet Takes A Breath : Gabby Rivera

bianglala

"The act of reading is a partnership. The author builds the house, but the reader makes it a home."

Jodi Picoult

bianglala

"There’s nothing wrong with reading a book you love over and over."

Gail Carson Levine

bianglala

"But the first lesson reading teaches is how to be alone."

Jonathan Franzen

bianglala

"I can survive well enough on my own— if given the proper reading material."

Throne of Glass : Sarah J. Maas

bianglala

“Some days you get up and you already know that things aren’t going to go well. They’re the type of days when you should just give in, put your pajamas back on, make some hot chocolate and read comic books in bed with the covers up until the world looks more encouraging. Of course, they never let you do that.”  

Bill Watterson

bianglala

"I read the whole novel straight through. And I got up and drank water, man. You should’ve seen me. I couldn’t move. That’s what a good writer will do to you. He’ll damn near kill you…a bad writer will too."

- Charles Bukowski, on the first time he read Celine

bianglala

"Books have a unique way of stopping time in a particular moment and saying: Let’s not forget this."

Dave Eggers

bianglala

"Reading is the creative center of a writer’s life."

On Writing : Stephen King

bianglala

"To read fast is as bad as to eat in a hurry."

Vilhelm Ekelund, poet (1880-1949)

bianglala

"Open a book this minute and start reading. Don’t move until you’ve reached page fifty. Until you’ve buried your thoughts in print. Cover yourself with words. Wash yourself away. Dissolve."

The Republic of Love : Carol Shields