Liberals decided it’s much better not to play outraged with me anymore. I sell lots of books that way.
We should be as careful of the books we read, as of the company we keep. The dead very often have more power than the living.
‘The Luminaries’ is such a different book to ‘The Rehearsal.’ There are only a couple of things that link the two books: there’s a certain preoccupation with looking at relationships from the outside, being shut out of human intimacy; and then there’s patterning.
Normally, I just sit in my quiet little room and do the small things that bring me pleasures. I read my books, I answer email, I write a little bit.
I don’t think that Slaughterhouse-Five was successful movie material. In fact, Vonnegut’s books mostly I don’t feel are movie material.
I read so many books when I was a kid that I didn’t even know were shaping me up.
If the government ever imposes a tax on books – and I wouldn’t put it past them – I’m in dead trouble.
Nothing bores me more than books where you read two pages and you know exactly how it’s going to come out. I want twists and turns that surprise me, characters that have a difficult time and that I don’t know if they’re going to live or die.
I like to read a lot of books and poems. Even though poems are short, I enjoy the emotions that come with them.
I read a lot for me. But I’m not one of those people who gets ‘The New York Times’ book review and runs out and buys 10 books and is done with them and passing them out to friends, you know, two weeks later.
Faulkner is a writer who has had much to do with my soul, but Hemingway is the one who had the most to do with my craft – not simply for his books, but for his astounding knowledge of the aspect of craftsmanship in the science of writing.
No, I got a GED in my 30s. My kids know that I never stop learning, and they know I love reading. I have books overflowing everywhere. I am current on today’s events and I read the paper every day, and we talk about it, so they see that appetite.
When I was in prison, I was wrapped up in all those deep books. That Tolstoy crap – people shouldn’t read that stuff.
This will never be a civilized country until we spend more money for books than we do for chewing gum.
Books and all forms of writing are terror to those who wish to suppress the truth.
I don’t have time to read books. I’ve read my share of books throughout my life, and I will continue to do so.
We’re taught Lord Acton’s axiom: all power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely. I believed that when I started these books, but I don’t believe it’s always true any more. Power doesn’t always corrupt. Power can cleanse. What I believe is always true about power is that power always reveals.
I wrote ‘Yellow Submarine’ for the Beatles. I wrote the screenplay for ‘The Games,’ about the Olympic Games. I wrote ‘Love Story,’ both the novel and the screenplay. I wrote ‘RPM’ for Stanley Kramer. Plus, I wrote two scholarly books and a 400-page translation from the Latin, and I dated June Wilkinson!
One of the things I love, and I’m a voracious reader as well as a writer, is books that surprise me, that are not predictable.
Books are like a mirror. If an ass looks in, you can’t expect an angel to look out.
Running a marathon was important to me, so I found time to train for it. Writing books is also important to me, so you know what? I carve out the time.
I think literary theory has not been terribly good for English studies in a while. It’s not that theory isn’t interesting, but it isn’t about books, or the idiosyncrasies and complexities of putting language together.
I always try to create conflict and drama in my books; it’s the engine of the novel.
I don’t write the books. God writes the books and delivers the speeches.
We go to school to learn to work hard for money. I write books and create products that teach people how to have money work hard for them.
The instruction we find in books is like fire. We fetch it from our neighbours, kindle it at home, communicate it to others, and it becomes the property of all.
I used to write books and plays in my mind, but I doubt that any of them would have been above the level of the cheapest dime novel.
The only reference in my life is my life, and it’s my life experience. It’s my environment. It’s my community. I’ve not made that for books.
The man who does not read good books has no advantage over the man who cannot read them.
I thought about how I’d play a vampire for awhile because I grew up watching vampire films and reading books.
I’m a computer scientist by training. I’m also the author of three books, all of which endorse the use of biotechnology to improve the human condition. In the most recent of these, ‘The Infinite Resource,’ I talk about the power of innovation to save the world.
Many good sayings are to be found in holy books, but merely reading them will not make one religious.
The wise man reads both books and life itself.
You know, I have a lot of books on my iPad, but when I try to read them, I find myself wandering off to play games. Those are books I’m interested in. I can’t imagine what would have happened to me in college if my biology class had been on the same computer as ‘Words With Friends’ and ‘Doom.’
With a young-adult series, you need to get a lot of books out on the market quickly. Teenagers aren’t going to wait years and years for the next book.
If you read a lot of books you are considered well read. But if you watch a lot of TV, you’re not considered well viewed.
The library world is set up on this model where the library is a physical building and has a number of books and serves a geographical community.
Personally, I really enjoy sci-fi. I watch it, I read comic books, and I play video games.
When I was a kid, there were these great comic books called ‘Tales From The Crypt’ and ‘The Vault of Horror.’ They were gruesome. I discovered them in the barbershop and thought they were fabulous.
When you have mastered numbers, you will in fact no longer be reading numbers, any more than you read words when reading books You will be reading meanings.
Books are the carriers of civilization. Without books, history is silent, literature dumb, science crippled, thought and speculation at a standstill.
I have an obsession with books about kids with Asperger’s syndrome.
Television isn’t inherently good or bad. You go to a bookstore, there are how many thousands of books, but how many of those do you want? Five? Television’s the same way. If you’re going to show people stuff, television is the way to go. Words and pictures show things.
I think the government should do everything they possibly can to, to bring this crisis to an end; and that means going after BP, enforcing the laws that are on the books, and restoring the gulf to its original condition.
My mom laid the foundation that in order for you to be successful, you have to take care of the books first. That’s one thing she preached about, because at any point, other stuff can be taken away.
We all draw inspiration from women whose names make the headlines and whose stories are in the history books, but often our greatest inspiration comes from our mothers, grandmothers, aunts, teachers, and friends.
I separate myself from my characters as much as possible, but I have these books that I create which are interactive diaries/timelines/memory books/pictures of the character’s entire world.
I write out of gratitude for all the books I have loved over the years.
I never read too many comic books when I was growing up, but I think everyone loved Wolverine, you know what I’m saying?
I have to have a character worth caring about. I tend not to start writing books about people I don’t have a lot of sympathy for because I’m just going to be with them too long.
My best investment, as cliched as this sounds, is the money I’ve spent developing myself, via books, workshops and coaching. Leadership begins within, and to have a better career, start by building a better you.
The more books we read, the clearer it becomes that the true function of a writer is to produce a masterpiece and that no other task is of any consequence.
My most successful books, the ones that I feel the strongest about, are the ones that started with a premise that for me was deeply emotional.
Books, I found, had the power to make time stand still, retreat or fly into the future.
Books are my weakness.
I don’t like books that seem to want to teach me things. Which is not to say that one doesn’t learn from books – but you do your own learning in your own way.
I’m a total Twihard. I read all the books and saw every movie on opening night with my mom.
I’ve always had great respect for Paddington because he is amusingly English and eccentric. He is a great British institution and my generation grew up with the books and then Michael Horden’s animations.
When I was a kid, I used to send away for those ventriloquist kits on the back of comic books.
Books are as useful to a stupid person as a mirror is useful to a blind person.
To return to the books of my childhood is to yield to the strain of nostalgia that is curious about the self I once was.
Muslims are not bloodthirsty people. Islam is a religion of peace that forbids the killing of the innocent. Islam also accepts the Prophets, whether those prophets are Mohammed, God’s peace and blessing be upon Him, or Moses or the other prophets of the Books.
