It is the nature of all greatness not to be exact. Edmund Burke, 1728 – 1797 A good book can teach you about the world and about yourself. You learn more than how to read better; you also learn more about life. You become wiser. Not just more knowledgeable — books that provide nothing but …
Category: Quotes
Feb 02
Quote of the week: January roundup
Creativity is magic. Don’t examine it too closely. Edward Albee The process of reading is reciprocal; the book is no more than a formula, to be furnished out with images out of the reader’s mind. Elizabeth Bowen, 1899 – 1973 The more I read, the more I acquire, the more certain I am that I …
Dec 30
Quote of the week: December roundup
When you’re writing stories, you take pieces of reality and pieces of imagination and you put them all in a container like a kaleidoscope and you shake them up, and then you turn the bottom the way you do in a kaleidoscope until its the pattern that you want. Judith Viorst Far and away the …
Dec 05
Quote of the week: November roundup
A library doesn’t need windows. A library is a window. Stewart Brand A book is a fragile creature, it suffers the wear of time, it fears rodents, the elements, clumsy hands. So the librarian protects them not only against mankind but also against nature, and devotes his life to this war with the forces of …
Nov 02
Quote of the week: October roundup
A scrupulous writer, in every sentence that he writes, will ask himself at least four questions, thus: 1. What am I trying to say? 2. What words will express it? 3. What image or idiom will make it clearer? 4. Is this image fresh enough to have an effect? George Orwell, 1903 – 1950 You …
Oct 05
Quote of the week: September roundup
Only write when your pillow is on fire. Elie Wiesel Books that children read but once are of scant service to them; those that have really helped to warm our imaginations and to train our faculties are the few old friends we know so well that they have become a portion of our thinking selves. …
Sep 02
Quote of the week: August roundup
Reading is that fruitful miracle of a communication in the midst of solitude. Marcel Proust, 1871 – 1922 The world of reality has its limits; the world of imagination is boundless. Jean-Jacques Rousseau, 1712 – 1778 Hard writing makes easy reading. Easy writing makes hard reading. William Zinsser, 1922 – 2015 There are a thousand …
Aug 04
Quote of the week: July roundup
All books are either dreams or swords, You can cut, or you can drug, with words. Amy Lowell, 1874 – 1925 Life is very nice, but it lacks form. It’s the aim of art to give it some. Jean Anouilh, 1910 – 1987 Man’s greatest drive is not love or hate but to change another …
Jul 01
Quote of the week: June roundup
Readers are plentiful: thinkers are rare. Harriet Martineau, 1802 – 1876 In books we never find anything but ourselves. Strangely enough, that always gives us great pleasure, and we say the author is a genius. Thomas Mann, 1875 – 1955 The fundamental difference between the mystery story and the ghost story is the fact that …
Jun 02
Quote of the week: May roundup
One must be drenched in words, literally soaked in them, to have the right ones form themselves into the proper patterns at the right moment. Hart Crane 1899-1932 A word is a bud attempting to become a twig. How can one not dream while writing? It is the pen which dreams. The blank page gives …