7,712 Quotes About Books

[P]art of the pleasure of engaging with a writer is unraveling some allusions and admitting defeat by others.

She's always loved writers, even more than the books I think. They're like personal friends to her.

No, I am not imagining a book-burning, warmongering, anti-intellectual fascist regime – in my plan, there is no place for re ghters who light up the Homers and Lady Murasakis and Cao Xueqins stashed under your bed – because, for starters, I’m not banning literature per se. I’m banning the reading of literature. Purchasing and collecting books and other forms of literature remains perfectly legitimate as long as you don’t peruse the literature at hand.

Whenever I’m not writing, time trudges forward with the maddening, mortifying, miserable, morose, moribund pace of a funeral procession.

I still love the book-ness of books, the smell of books: I am a book fetishist—books to me are the coolest and sexiest and most wonderful things there are.

What is the sweetness of flowers compared to the savour of dust and confinement?

...to her all books were the same and, as with her subjects, she felt a duty to approach them without prejudice...Lauren Bacall, Winifred Holtby, Sylvia Plath - who were they? Only be reading could she find out.

Getting all emotionally wrapped up in made-up people's lives gives me a chance to take a break from my own life [...].

More than at any other time, when I hold a beloved book in my hand my limitations fall from me, my spirit is free.