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.

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.

Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends.

Show me the books he loves and I shall know the man far better than through mortal friends.

Some authors should be paid by the quantity NOT written.

Some authors should be paid by the quantity NOT written.

Having been unpopular in high school is not just cause for book publications.

Having been unpopular in high school is not just cause for book publications.

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.

Today the discredit of words is very great. Most of the time the media transmit lies. In the face of read more

Today the discredit of words is very great. Most of the time the media transmit lies. In the face of an intolerable world, words appear to change very little. State power has become congenitally deaf, which is why --but the editorialists forget it --terrorists are reduced to bombs and hijacking.

Misquotation is, in fact, the pride and privilege of the learned. A widely-read man never quotes accurately, for the rather read more

Misquotation is, in fact, the pride and privilege of the learned. A widely-read man never quotes accurately, for the rather obvious reason that he has read too widely.

There are times when I think that the ideal library is composed solely of reference books. They are like understanding read more

There are times when I think that the ideal library is composed solely of reference books. They are like understanding friends-always ready to change the subject when you have had enough of this or that.