Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading read more

Don't ask me who's influenced me. A lion is made up of the lambs he's digested, and I've been reading all my life.

Oh that my words were now written! on that they were printed in
a book!

Oh that my words were now written! on that they were printed in
a book!

Books, books, books!
I had found the secret of a garret room
Piled high with cases in read more

Books, books, books!
I had found the secret of a garret room
Piled high with cases in my father's name;
Piled high, packed large,--where, creeping in and out
Among the giant fossils of my past,
Like some small nimble mouse between the ribs
Of a mastodon, I nibbled here and there
At this or that box, pulling through the gap,
In heats of terror, haste, victorious joy,
The first book first. And how I felt it beat
Under my pillow, in the morning's dark,
An hour before the sun would let me read!
My books!
At last, because the time was ripe,
I chanced upon the poets.

A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter in read more

A well-composed book is a magic carpet on which we are wafted to a world that we cannot enter in any other way

The printing press is either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse of modern times, sometimes one forgets which it read more

The printing press is either the greatest blessing or the greatest curse of modern times, sometimes one forgets which it is.

Old books that have ceased to be of service should no more be abandoned than should old friends who have read more

Old books that have ceased to be of service should no more be abandoned than should old friends who have ceased to give pleasure.

And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many
books there is no end: and much study read more

And further, by these, my son, be admonished: of making many
books there is no end: and much study is a weariness of the
flesh.

The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected.

The great American novel has not only already been written, it has already been rejected.

For books are more than books, they are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason read more

For books are more than books, they are the life, the very heart and core of ages past, the reason why men worked and died, the essence and quintessence of their lives.