The biggest critics of my books are people who never read them.

The biggest critics of my books are people who never read them.

Keep your words sweet -- you may have to eat them. I expect to pass through this world but once; read more

Keep your words sweet -- you may have to eat them. I expect to pass through this world but once; any good thing therefore that I can do, or any kindness that I can show to any fellow creature, let me do it now; let me not defer or neglect it, for I shall not pass this way again.

Yes and No are very short words to say, but we should think for some length of time before saying read more

Yes and No are very short words to say, but we should think for some length of time before saying them.

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.

When I was born I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a half.

When I was born I was so surprised I didn't talk for a year and a half.

The principle of procrastinated rape is said to be the ruling one in all the great bestsellers.

The principle of procrastinated rape is said to be the ruling one in all the great bestsellers.

The reason that there are so few good books written is that so few people who write know anything.

The reason that there are so few good books written is that so few people who write know anything.

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.

Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.

Criticism is a misconception: we must read not to understand others but to understand ourselves.