Book Quotes

"Although my book is banned I am still allowed to go to China and travel. There is no longer the kind of control that Mao used to have-there have been deep fundamental changes in society"

Jung Chang, Writer

"More generally, I made an effort to leave out things that weren't relevant to the main narrative themes of the book, namely that there were two sides to Steve Jobs: the romantic, poetic, countercultural rebel on one side, and the serious businessperson on the other"

Walter Isaacson, Writer

"I thought, if ever there were a time to write a book about hope, it's now"

Studs Terkel, Journalist

"I'm sure you're aware, with the time it takes to put these books together, everything can suddenly start coming out at once even though I wrote anything between one and five years ago"

Garth Ennis, Writer

"The English Bible - a book which, if everything else in our language should perish, would alone suffice to show the whole extent of its beauty and power"

Thomas B. Macaulay, Historian

"Why do I do this every Sunday? Even the book reviews seem to be the same as last week's. Different books same reviews"

John Osborne, Playwright

"With each new book, the march of our national history takes a step forward. When one is present at a book launch, one is bearing witness to the birth of a new body of ideas, to the coming into being of another testimony of history"

Ibrahim Babangida, Statesman

"Comic books and The Chronicles of Narnia. My mother used to read those to me and my twin brother growing up"

Shawn Ashmore, Actor

"I have no problem selling books to media franchises and we do it all the time. The author must understand that he/she is a writer for hire and has no control over copyright or over editorial changes made to the text"

Richard Curtis, Writer

"Again, we turn down most books that have been self-published unless they have a special track record. We have taken a small number on, however, and sold them to major publishers for a nice sum. But that is an exception to the rule"

Richard Curtis, Writer

"All the books I have written have been one book, from the beginning"

Marguerite Young, Author

"We still lend our old house out to relatives. They keep a guest book for my fans to sign"

Loretta Lynn, Musician

"But as my brother was doing his research for a book about my father, it became his opinion that the most influential anti-semitism my father encountered when he was growing up was from Jews, because his relatives were German Jews, and doctors"

Tobias Wolff, Writer

"Basically, right before college I got into the Guinness book for my feet and started to do local commercials and little radio spots, just little things and found I really liked it"

Matthew McGrory, Actor

"I don't like books, they're all fact, no heart"

Stephen Colbert, Comedian

"Writing a book for me, I expect, is very similar to the experience of reading the book for my readers"

R. A. Salvatore, Author

"The book was at a reasonably high position on the New York Times... before I was in the country. I thought it would be an interesting experiment to see if my presence here would push it up or down"

Kazuo Ishiguro, Author

"A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return"

Salman Rushdie, Novelist

"I tend to turn down books originally published as e-books. As for selling books directly to e-book publishers, I would do so only if all traditional publishers had turned them down"

Richard Curtis, Writer

"I fantasize about having a manual job where I can come home at night, read a book and not feel responsible for what will happen the next day"

Jodie Foster, Actress

"The copycat effects of media violence, similar to those previously attributed to westerns, radio serials and comic books, are easy to exaggerate"

Hugh Mackay

"Inside that book, it's my life-all the places where I'm hurting or I laughed or I cried or I prayed. And I've had to pray a lot!"

June Carter Cash, Musician

"I loved to read and to write, but then something happened. As I made my way through school, I kept getting handed books to read that didn't excite me and didn't even remotely connect to the realities of my life"

R. A. Salvatore, Author

"I had been plunged into a different world. I found myself spending half my time answering weird questions on book tours in the Midwest. People would stand up and explain to me the situation in their office and ask me whether they should resign or not"

Kazuo Ishiguro, Author

"I doubt I'll ever do another book collaboration; I've been spoiled. Roger and I both happened to move to New Mexico at about the same time, when we each had a family of young kids to raise. Socializing seemed to lead naturally to working together"

Fred Saberhagen, Author

"Fantasy for me as a kid was real, and I had a fantasy about what life was, whether it was sort of wicked and dire, or wholly normal, or whatever. Anything really close to home is not, it seems to me, what a good book should be about"

Diana Wynne Jones, Writer

"Yes, but another writer I read in high school who just knocked me out was Theodore Dreiser. I read An American Tragedy all in one weekend and couldn't put it down - I locked myself in my room. Now that was antithetical to every other book I was reading at the time because Dreiser really had no style, but it was powerful"

Joan Didion, Author

"Now, I - for several years while I was researching this book, I felt quite obsessed by thoughts about sentencing, punishment, how judges arrive at their decisions"

Helen Garner, Novelist

"I don't plan to write another science book, but I don't plan not to. I do enjoy writing histories, and taking subjects that are generally dull and trying to make them interesting"

Bill Bryson, Writer

"Some books claim I have already clocked up a century of Grands Prix, but let me put the record straight. Australia will be my 100th start, and I aim to mark the milestone with a cracking performance. It could even be celebrated with a victory"

Damon Hill, Athlete

"I feel sometimes that in children's books there are more and more grim problems, but I don't know that I want to burden third- and fourth-graders with them"

Beverly Cleary, Author

"I had an idea in the beginning to do a book about some of the events that I had covered, just various stories that I've covered. Reporters spend a lot of time telling each other tales about how they covered stories, and that's what this book started out to be"

Bob Schieffer, Journalist

"My career is an open book, but my life is not"

Barry Bonds, Athlete

"With twins, reading aloud to them was the only chance I could get to sit down. I read them picture books until they were reading on their own"

Beverly Cleary, Author

"I had a very wise mother. She always kept books that were my grade level in our house"

Beverly Cleary, Author

"I like shows or films or books that have messages but don't beat people over the head with them"

Anna Paquin, Actress

"Books are challenging and inspirational to me"

Amy Sedaris, Actress

"I've been a screenwriter for twenty-five years. Every one of my books have been optioned for movies and I have written a few of those screenplays"

Alice Hoffman, Author

"I did go there later, but I hadn't been there before I wrote the book. Sometimes I feel like the imagined can feel more real than the real?"

Alice Hoffman, Author

"Every time I finish a book, I forget everything I learned writing it - the information just disappears out of my head"

Alice Hoffman, Author

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