Book Quotes

"I'm constantly revising. Once the book is written and typed, I go through the entire draft again"

"A book is sent out into the world, and there is no way of fully anticipating the responses it will elicit. Consider the responses called forth by the Bible, Homer, Shakespeare - let alone contemporary poetry or a modern novel"

Chaim Potok, Author

"All modern American literature comes from one book by Mark Twain called Huckleberry Finn"

Ernest Hemingway, Novelist

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

Fran Lebowitz, Journalist

"The only books that influence us are those for which we are ready, and which have gone a little farther down our particular path than we have yet got ourselves"

E. M. Forster, Novelist

"I never take any notes or draw charts or make elaborate diagrams, but I hold an image of the shape of a book in my head and work from that mental hologram"

Jonathan Lethem, Writer

"And when I was young, my family was perfectly nice. I write a lot about it, as you noticed. But it was rather limited. I think, I don't think anyone in my family would really feel I'd done them an injustice by saying that. We didn't see many people. There were many books. It was as if I wanted to get away from home"

Christopher Hitchens, Author

"I have zero desire, just so you know, to be in the limelight. I don't think it's good for the country to have a former president criticize his successor. You're not going to see me giving my opinions in the public arena, until I start selling my book. I'm going to emerge then submerge"

George W. Bush, President

"I still have a full-time day job, which is why it took me five years to write An Ear to the Ground, and why I won't have another book finished by next week"

Ken Thompson, Scientist

"I think plays, like books, are endemic. They grow out of the soil of the writer and the place he's writing about. I think, you just can't move them about, you know"

Peter Shaffer, Playwright

"I couldn't be happier about being a part of 'Hunger Games' and to play Katniss. I have a huge responsibility to the fans of this incredible book and I don't take it lightly. I will give everything I have to these movies and to this role to make it worthy of Suzanne Collins' masterpiece"

Jennifer Lawrence, Actress

"Now, to describe the process of the Wrapped Reichstag, which went from 1971 to '95, there is an entire book about that, because each one of our projects has its own book. The book is not an art book, meaning it's not written by an art historian"

Christo, Artist

"One way an author dies a little each day is when his books go out of print"

William Goldman, Novelist

"You've really got to start hitting the books because it's no joke out here"

Harper Lee, Novelist

"All literature consists of whatever the writer thinks is cool. The reader will like the book to the degree that he agrees with the writer about what's cool"

Steven Brust, Author

"The new spirituality will bring about what I'm calling the 'end of better.' And that is in fact what is called for in the next of the series of books that I've been writing"

Neale Donald Walsch, Author

"I love old books. They tell you stories about their use. You can see where the fingerprints touched the pages as they held the book open. You can see how long they lingered on each page by the finger stains"

Jack Bowman, Actor

"I've given up reading books. I find it takes my mind off myself"

Oscar Levant, Composer

"Well, I would never admit to copying Karl Rove's play book, but there's no doubt that what the Bush people did in 2004 was impressive. They had neighbors talking to neighbors. They did a remarkable job increasing Republican turnout in states like Ohio and Florida"

David Plouffe, Public Servant

"Our coach was absolutely out of his head. He must have read Bear Bryant's book. We had 78 players out. The first day 35 quit. Twenty quit the second day. We ended with 17 players. It was depressing"

Merlin Olsen, Athlete

"When I came out, and for many years afterwards, it had become a habit for me to sit and read and read and read, like an obsession. I would take 20 books, and not come out until I'd finished them. It took me a while to change that habit"

Mohsen Makhmalbaf, Director

"I take refuge in my books"

Julia Ward Howe, Activist

"I think Maus I is better than Maus II. The standard here is whether or not it's as good as a great book of prose literature and by that standard, no, it's not that great"

Ted Rall, Cartoonist

"I spent three days a week for 10 years educating myself in the public library, and it's better than college. People should educate themselves - you can get a complete education for no money. At the end of 10 years, I had read every book in the library and I'd written a thousand stories"

Ray Bradbury, Writer

"A couple of weeks after that, Zebra Books phoned with an offer, and I accepted"

George Stephen, Businessman

"We had literary references, so we knew what we were talking about. We could quote things, talk about books we'd read; you can say something, you don't have to explain it"

Kevin Ayers, Composer

"One of the most beautiful passages of Rousseau is that in the sixth book of Confessions, where he describes the awakening in him of the literary sense. Of such wisdom, the poetic passion, the desire of beauty, the love of art for its own sake, has most"

Walter Pater, Critic

"I remember once I read a book on mental illness and there was a nurse that had gotten sick. Do you know what she died from? From worrying about the mental patients not being able to get their food. She became a mental patient"

Ornette Coleman, Musician

"But for me, being an editor I've been an editor of all kinds of books being an editor of poetry has been the way in which I could give a crucial part of my time to what I love most"

Peter Davison, Actor

"All TV can do is capture the spirit of a book because the medium is so utterly different. But I'm very grateful for the readers that Masterpiece Theatre has undoubtedly brought me"

Joanna Trollope, Novelist

"Of all the ways of acquiring books, writing them oneself is regarded as the most praiseworthy method. Writers are really people who write books not because they are poor, but because they are dissatisfied with the books which they could buy but do not like"

Walter Benjamin, Critic

"You buy any book on color theory today, and it's just complete poppycock. Everybody comes out of school painting pink, purple and green. The whole damn cartoon industry has pink purple and green on their mind"

John Kricfalusi, Artist

"It works in the comic book, but as the audiences have gotten older and more sophisticated, I think the stories need to grow up with them. This is a story about a couple of rival gangs and what goes wrong in a couple of days"

Todd McFarlane, Artist

"Each book has been different and has been challenging in its own way to write"

Jean M. Auel, Writer

"I think for anybody reading the book they're going to get an idea in their heads of all those characters, and I think that once that gets fixed, it's quite hard to shake"

Hugh Dancy, Actor

"I still do some inking here and there and I've actually got a book that I'm going to ink entirely"

Todd McFarlane, Artist

"Anyone interested in the world generally can't help being interested in young adult culture - in the music, the bands, the books, the fashions, and the way in which the young adult community develops its own language"

Margaret Mahy, Author

"Hardcover books are fairly expensive these days and to read one requires a significant commitment of time in our busy society. So I want to make sure that when readers buy one of my books they get something they're familiar with"

Jeffery Deaver, Writer

"Normally, I could hit hard enough, as anyone who studied my fights might have known. But the impression was that I was essentially defensive, the very reverse of a killer, the prize fighter who read books, even Shakespeare"

Gene Tunney, Athlete

"In other words, the people who populate my books are more than caricatures"

Jeffery Deaver, Writer

Page 2 of 53