Books Quotes (5005 Quotes)

My shorthand answer is that I try to write the kind of book that I would like to read. If I can make it clear and interesting and compelling to me, then I hope maybe it will be for the reader.

I read The Bell Jar, and then I read her memoir and her diaries, and a third book, an outside opinion. Just the way she made the pillows so neat on the oven door. It just seems to be the opposite of, if you're going to take your life, in a horrible rage it happens.

I'm working on a book, but I'm lazy, I'm busy and I'm lazy, there's an interesting combination

First and foremost it is the company, it's these executives that put these numbers together, it's not the auditors. So the people who are actually in the kitchen, cooking the books, stirring the stew, so to speak, are these executives, and there is no excuse for what happened.

Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

I was known as 'Ray, Head of Security' in the bookstores and stuff where he was signing books. I just spent an enormous amount of time with him and watched him like a hawk. Studied him. I tried to steal his soul.

They have probably heard every excuse in the book, so be straight with them and they'll help you out,

A dirty book is rarely dusty.

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!

Libraries allow children to ask questions about the world and find the answers. And the wonderful thing is that once a child learns to use a library, the doors to learning are always open.

All a recipe is is a road map -- how to get from Point A to Point B. In the recreational books, it's a lot more descriptive. Cooking isn't brain surgery. It isn't rocket science. It's the application of some basic principles. It just takes some experience.

I had to do the book because there was an unauthorised biography which didn't tell it like it was.

A man's library is a sort of harem.

All he was interested in was sports and we had a difficult time getting him to read. Little girls have an advantage because there are a lot of books for them at that age to choose from. It's not that great for boys.

There's no satisfactory way of closing the book on this. I think people are well meaning when they say they're going to move on. But I don't think it's realistic.

I got done writing Ports of Call and suddenly realized I have far too much material for the book.

I'm a book nut, and I've been to a lot of bookstores. This is one of the best. It's full of books you don't find anywhere else. I could stay here all week.

Like Dr. King I have a dream of my own, too, that the powerful message of this little book would be engraved on every human heart and will never be forgotten again. That you who read this book will feel as I do that these 120 pages ... should be required reading for all humanity.

I'm one of those writers who, when writing, believes she's god-and that she hasn't bestowed free will on any of her characters. In that sense there are no surprises in any of my books.

You don't have to go buy your book.

These were not the type of paintings that make it into the coffee-table art books.

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

I love meeting fans. The people who are fans of my books are really smart and dedicated, because some independent comics are hard to get. I will drive all the way to Pittsburgh or Detroit to put it in their hands.

It's really easy to do if you have been talking about it a long time, ... Neal says 80 percent of writing a book is research and the other 20 percent is writing.

The best way to obtain truth and wisdom is not to ask from books, but to go to God in prayer, and obtain divine teaching.

The 'twilight' of Saudi Arabian oil envisioned in this book is not a remote fantasy.

If you want to read a sad book, read Say You Love Me.

To make a hole-in-one in a major, that was great, ... It's an honor for me to play in a major with all these great players and be under par... and then make a hole-in-one to boot. That might put me in the history books.

It's the truth. I don't lie. I tell it as it is. It's unfortunate it happened. And I didn't bring it up to sell the books.

It's important, I think, for a writer of fiction to maintain an awareness of the pace and shape of the book as he's writing it. That is, he should be making an object, not chattering.

Women's magazines punish us with their gorgeous photographs of Cameron Diaz's ass and snappy diet ideas on the next page. I deliberately illustrated the book with generous thighs ... and women in track pants. I speak to the pear-shaped goddess and the perfection-crazed workaholic.

A book should be luminous not voluminous.

I'm honored that Ambassador John Bolton would agree to read a copy of my book. Ambassador Bolton understands that the United Nations is an institution desperately in need of reform, and I hope that he and the UN employees who have read my book will be able to continue bringing about change within the organization.

I was under twenty when I deliberately put it to myself one night after good conversation that there are moments when we actually touch in talk what the best writing can only come near. The curse of our book language is not so much that it keeps forever to the same set phrases ... but that it sounds forever with the same reading tones. We must go out into the vernacular for tones that haven't been brought to book.

When I'm writing the book I'm laughing at just how overblown the characters seemed. How full of himself he seems. But I didn't get far enough in the series to really drive the joke of it home.

My book is very wild. But you know during the period of BATMAN, that there were thousands of Batman and Robin costumes sold and these weren't just for kids.

So, your idea of a good night is to go to bed early with a book and a milky drink, is it What kind of example is that for the 19-year-olds who have no idea how to behave You take this powder and get it up your nose pronto, young lady

An art book is a museum without walls.

All the same, they books do serve some purpose. Culture doesn't save anything or anyone, it doesn't justify. But it's a product of man he projects himself into it, he recognizes himself in it that critical mirror alone offers him his image.

Nah, nah, nah. There's no rules. Show me the rule book.

I had it described to me once by a young man who often comes into the library as a cross between Harry Potter and the X-Men. So I thought that was a great description. It's an excellent book, and the kids really love it, and they don't want me to stop.

Your library is your portrait.

It's the fan sites that are important. They become more than just an electronic advertisement for the book. They evolve into real content that people want to read.

The dirtiest book of all is the expurgated book.

This is a terrific transaction that is the right thing to do for both the Time Warner Book Group and our shareholders. With its record-breaking performance in 2005, the Book Group is at the top of its game. To build on this success, however, it needs the scale and other advantages that come from being part of a larger, more global book publisher. This transaction also underscores our commitment to a strategy of managing closely related, industry-leading businesses to maximize shareholder returns. We wish our Time Warner Book Group colleagues continued success and the best of luck at their new home.

Books constitute capital. A library book lasts as long as a house, for hundreds of years. It is not, then, an article of mere consumption but fairly of capital, and often in the case of professional men, setting out in life, it is their only capital.

It is. I mean people probably know it better than me if you have read the books. I mean, I had not read the third book, by the time I came to do it.

We work on our free throws every day. I don't know, I guess free-throw shooting is boring. But I have read every book, watched every tape, and we still shoot 50 percent. I think maybe we'll stop for awhile.

It's exciting to walk through and see chemistry students drawing compounds and talking. It's not just a bunch of students reading art books.

We are very, very bullish on the prospects for the electronic book, ... I don't think our projections are as optimistic as Microsoft's, but we definitely see it happening and being a substantial part of our future business. It could radically alter the economics of publishing. It will change the manufacture-ship-get returns model. You don't have to manufacturer five to sell three.