Criticism is an indirect form of self-boasting.

Criticism is an indirect form of self-boasting.

I think we must quote whenever we feel that the allusion is interesting or helpful or amusing.

I think we must quote whenever we feel that the allusion is interesting or helpful or amusing.

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.

In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather read more

In the case of good books, the point is not how many of them you can get through, but rather how many can get through to you.

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.

Writers seldom choose as friends those self-contained characters who are never in trouble, never unhappy or ill, never make mistakes, read more

Writers seldom choose as friends those self-contained characters who are never in trouble, never unhappy or ill, never make mistakes, and always count their change when it is handed to them.

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

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

One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well.

One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well.

Some on commission, some for the love of learning, some because they have nothing better to do or because they read more

Some on commission, some for the love of learning, some because they have nothing better to do or because they hope these walls of books will deaden the drumming of the demon in their ears.