Reading Quotes

“Bea insists that everyone who works in a bookstore wants to be a writer, but Henry's never fancied himself a novelist. Sure, he's tried putting pen to paper, but it never really works. He can't find the words, the story, the voice. Can't figure out what he could possibly add to so many shelves. Henry would rather be a storykeeper than a storyteller.”
― V.E. Schwab, The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue

“When I was younger
I thought I had superpowers
Thought if I sat real still and stared at a book
No one would be able to see me
I got so good at it
I forgot that I’m the only one playing the game
Sit still with a book or my head down
And you can go missing”
― Mahogany L. Browne, Chlorine Sky

“Read books. Try to understand the reason why things happen, why they are as they are. If you see only the surface phenomena, then the world becomes extremely confusing, ever more unsettling. But if the reasons are understood there's a kind of simplicity that emerges.”
― David McCullough, The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For

“Unless the religious claims of the Bible are again acknowledged, its literary claims will, I think, be given only “mouth honour” and that decreasingly. . . It is, if you like to put it that way, not merely a sacred book but a book so remorselessly and continuously sacred that it does not invite, it excludes or repels, the merely aesthetic approach. You can read it as literature only by a tour de force. You are cutting the wood against the grain, using the tool for a purpose it was not intended to serve. It demands incessantly to be taken on its own terms: it will not continue to give literary delight very long except to those who go to it for something quite different.”
― C.S. Lewis, Words to Live By: A Guide for the Merely Christian

“Reading allows us to traverse time, space, one’s own consciousness. It engages the mind like nothing else, stimulating every part of the brain and allowing the reader to experience everything as if they were truly there.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“If you are conscious to yourself that you possess more knowledge upon some subjects than others of your standing, reflect that you have had greater opportunites of seeing the world, and obtaining a knowledge of Mankind than any of your cotemporarys, that you have never wanted a Book, but it has been supplied you, that your whole time has been spent in the company of Men of Literature and Science. How unpardonable would it have been in you, to have been a Blockhead.”
― Abigail Adams

“This is a time in which very few activities seem right. Mostly I read at this hour, perusing the pile of books that live by my favourite chair, waiting to offer up fragments of learning, rather than inviting cover-to-cover pursuits. I browse a chapter here, a segment there, or hunt through an index for a matter that’s on my mind. I love such loose, exploratory reading. For once, I am not reading to escape; instead, having already made my getaway, I am able to roam through the extra space I’ve found, as restless and impatient as I like, revelling in the play of my own absorption. They say that we should dance like no one is watching. I think that applies to reading, too.”
― Katherine May, Wintering: The Power of Rest and Retreat in Difficult Times

“We’re all what we read to a very considerable degree.”
― David McCullough, The American Spirit: Who We Are and What We Stand For

“Books will change your life... you have no idea how much you can learn about yourself by plunging into someone else’s life. You can read your way into a whole new narrative for yourself.”
― Adrienne Brodeur, Wild Game: My Mother, Her Lover, and Me

“The only things that she cares about are a comfortable chair, a good reading light, and enough books and magazines.”
― Harper Lee

“Enough reading, time for action.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“Ex Libris

Here is the fossil as a perfume. Here is a bone
picked clean and whittled into a tiny tall ship.
Here are magicians teaching secrets
to contortionists. Here is colored glass on fire.
Here is love broken into vowels and a shrug.
Here is scripture forged into the memory of water.
Here are rosettes, exposed wiring, teasings onto the brink.
Here is the full vista of an hour, and the sun.”
― megan-harlan

“The devout read their religious texts daily.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“The reader should be able to imagine himself inhabiting the house, walking the streets, sitting by the river. All the writer needs to achieve this is
the real expression of his tangible imaginations on a piece of paper.”
― Adewale Joel, Learn Creative Writing: A guide to writing perfect drafts

“The use of motifs is an effective device for memorability—the repetition of certain symbols throughout the experiences of the protagonist helps the idea register in the memory or subconscious of the reader.”
― Adewale Joel, Learn Creative Writing: A guide to writing perfect drafts

“Don’t bother me with your hormones. I’m reading.”
― Heather Cocks, The Royal We

“We need to create a culture in this country in which reading and resistance go hand-in-hand.”
― Howard Zinn

“Some people say Shakespeare should be experienced in the theater, not read. This is only the case for people with weak minds.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“The man who can read is a king among paupers," he used to tell her. " Better than a king, I'll warrant. For there's plenty o' royal folk who don't know their A— from their E—!" The Sweep would always chuckle at this last part, and Nan had never known why.”
― Jonathan Auxier, Sweep: The Story of a Girl and Her Monster

“Every book is a marathon.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“A book at the table, just as in all places, is never rude.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“How long is this damn thing?”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“Literature is the spirit of the Culture, the lifeblood. They’re one and the same. Words are everywhere. Storytelling is everywhere. Stories have been essential to human survival since prehistory: at their most base, they are how we communicate both threats and opportunities. They are how the subconscious sorts through problems as we rest; through the narratives that are dreams, we can go on and address life’s travails. Literature refines these functions, elevates them to the spiritual realm. That’s why words are so important, why literature is the highest art. Visual artworks, if not directly inspired by literature or telling their own stories, are still described in words. Dance is often performed as part of a story, and if not, is still described in words. The only thing that could conceivably rival it, as something unrelated, would be classical music, but even the masters in that field were often inspired by works in the Canon, and titled their compositions in words. Words give all things meaning. Stories are fundamental to the human experience.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“Literature is the spirit of the Culture, the lifeblood.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“Stories have been essential to human survival since prehistory: at their most base, they are how we communicate both threats and opportunities. They are how the subconscious sorts through problems as we rest; through the narratives that are dreams, we can go on and address life’s travails. Literature refines these functions, elevates them to the spiritual realm.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“Stories are fundamental to the human experience.”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“After one postmodern doorstopper, you’ve read them all. Pynchon got there first, really… and it was good… but most of the others have been pure drivel. Modern life is very complicated and overwhelming and it is advisable to be anxious about it all… Well, obviously!”
― A.D. Aliwat, In Limbo

“I remember the first movie I ever saw at a theater. It was The Greatest Show on Earth. I saw it with my mother at the Paramount Theater in Denver in 1952. It was about the circus. I wet my pants.”
― Carleton Prince

“If you are not able to travel," he told me, "the next best thing is to read. Read all you can girl, girl. And store up that knowledge, for you never know when you will need it.”
― Paula Brackston, The Winter Witch

“Okumak için Norfolk’a yalnız birkaç temel araştırma kitabı götürecek, bu defa yanıma roman almayacağım. Hatta günler ihtimallerin olumlularını getirirse, orada, kitap yüzü açılmamış tatillerin havasını atan o asîlik timsali öğrenci arkadaşlarıma da birkaç günlüğüne memnuniyetle ben de katılıp, gevşeklik müziğinin kusursuz ahenginin, yaşamları sürekli hepsi doğru notalara da basmayan farklı tellerden çalmaya zorlamasıyla ünlü edebiyat müziği tarafından dahi bozulmasına izin vermeyeceğim.”
― Burak Çapraz, Figore