Some on commission, some for the love of learning, some because they have nothing better to do or because they read more

Some on commission, some for the love of learning, some because they have nothing better to do or because they hope these walls of books will deaden the drumming of the demon in their ears.

To write is to make oneself the echo of what cannot cease speaking -- and since it cannot, in order read more

To write is to make oneself the echo of what cannot cease speaking -- and since it cannot, in order to become its echo I have, in a way, to silence it. I bring to this incessant speech the decisiveness, the authority of my own silence.

The words of the world want to make sentences.

The words of the world want to make sentences.

Though by whim, envy, or resentment led, they damn those authors whom they never read.

Though by whim, envy, or resentment led, they damn those authors whom they never read.

Writers seldom choose as friends those self-contained characters who are never in trouble, never unhappy or ill, never make mistakes, read more

Writers seldom choose as friends those self-contained characters who are never in trouble, never unhappy or ill, never make mistakes, and always count their change when it is handed to them.

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of.

A synonym is a word you use when you can't spell the word you first thought of.

To feel most beautifully alive means to be reading something beautiful, ready always to apprehend in the flow of language read more

To feel most beautifully alive means to be reading something beautiful, ready always to apprehend in the flow of language the sudden flash of poetry.

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting.

I divide all readers into two classes: those who read to remember and those who read to forget.

I divide all readers into two classes: those who read to remember and those who read to forget.