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All Quotes tagged Books(462)

However warm the fuzzies might get because we love reading, there’s still a bottom line.

— Heather Demetrios, How To Lose A Third Of A Million Dollars Without Really Trying

How to be a writer Money Writers and money Publishing Books

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No writer I knew had a person they trusted to advise on finance: it’s a notoriously predatory industry and our unconventional earnings make getting clear advise difficult indeed.

— Heather Demetrios, How To Lose A Third Of A Million Dollars Without Really Trying

How to be a writer Money Writers and money Publishing Books

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Did anyone working with me — agency, publishing team — tell me that a staggering advance was not something I should depend on or get used to and that, in fact, it’s extraordinarily common in the publishing industry for untested debuts to be paid large sums they will never see again? No.

— Heather Demetrios, How To Lose A Third Of A Million Dollars Without Really Trying

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As climate-related disasters continue to make headlines, parents today are understandably concerned with raising kids who care about the environment. There are many ways to teach children to take care of the planet, and one simple yet powerful approach is through books.

— Caroline Bologna, 25 Children's Books That Teach Kids To Care About The Environment

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Readers are stuck in a kind of literary social network purgatory.

— Angela Lashbrook, Almost Everything About Goodreads Is Broken

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Bid goodbye to the breezy summer read, falls' impending approach heralds the arrival of some heavyweight literary hitters.

— Vogue, 17 Fall Books We're Excited About

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The problem with books and videos is that you can’t do anything else while you’re doing them, right? When you’re reading, you’re reading. When you’re watching a video, you can be distracted, but you have to pay attention to the video. But, if you’re listening to a podcast, you can be driving a forklift or a long haul trunk, or you can be exercising or doing the dishes. And so what that means is that podcasts free up, say, two hours a day, for people to engage in education activities that they wouldn’t otherwise be able to engage in, and that’s about one-eighth of people’s lives.

— Jordan B. Peterson, Nina Paley: Animator Extraordinaire

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But with so many new books released this year, how are you ever going to pick which one to read first? Thankfully, former President Barack Obama is here to help.

— Sydney Bucksbaum and Entertainment Weekly, Barack Obama just revealed his summer reading list (and he's got impeccable taste)

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Books are also important in real-life prisons; you can donate books requested by inmates by looking at their wish lists.

— Christine Ro, Bookish Activities of Orange Is the New Black Characters

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It’s time to head to the bookstore and check out some of the awesome books below—all of which feature a BFF relationship as layered, fun, and genuine as Molly and Amy’s in Booksmart.

— Jessica Macleish, If You Loved 'Booksmart,' Check Out These Reads

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Female friendship is tricky. Friends arrive. Friends fade. Friends get jealous! Friends fight!

— Liana Satenstein, Lauren Mechling Discusses Her New Book, How Could She, With Naomi Fry in Brooklyn

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All you had to do was pull a book from the shelf and open it and suddenly the darkness was not so dark anymore.

— Ray Bradbury, Farewell

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I'm gonna throw a box of books
and my beloved guitar

into the back of my truck

and try my luck in California.

— Mason Jennings, California (Pt. II) (Mason Jennings)

California Books Music Youth

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Steel writes in her home office. Most of the time, that's San Francisco, but sometimes she's at her house in Paris. Wherever she is, she writes on her 1946 Olympia standard typewriter, which she's nicknamed Olly.

— Samantha Leach, How The Hell Has Danielle Steel Managed To Write 179 Books?

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It was not a competition, but there was a push. I felt him pushing me to be more of the person I used to be and more of who I wanted to be.

— Karla Marie-Rose Derus, How Bibliophiles Flirt

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Swedish artist Hilma af Klint passed away in 1944 at the age of 81 and left behind more than 1,000 works that she had kept private. She believed that the world “was not ready for her art,” so she asked that the pieces remain unseen for another two decades.

— Sara Barnes , 10 Art Books That Will Nourish Your Creative Soul This Month

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Researchers find that toddlers verbalize and interact more with their parents when reading sessions feature print books, not tablets.

— KEVIN DICKINSON, Toddlers engage more with print books than ebooks, developmental researchers say

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Money can’t buy happiness? I hate that saying. Money helps a lot of people. To pretend that it doesn’t is just woo-woo bullshit. We live in a capitalist society. Money improves people’s circumstances. It just does.

— Jessica Knoll, How to Be a Writer and Still Get Really, Really Rich

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Here are six books to help take you, your art and your business to the next level.

— The H Hub, 6 Books You Need To Read If You’re A Creative Professional

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Here, on the internet, is a nowhere space, a shallow time. It is a flat and impenetrable surface. But with a book, we dive in; we are sucked in; we are immersed, body and soul.

— Mairead Small Staid, Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

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[T]he power of art—and many books are, still, art, not entertainment—lies in the way it turns us inward and outward, all at once. The communion we seek, scanning titles or turning pages, is not with others—not even the others, living or long dead, who wrote the words we read—but with ourselves. Our finest capacities, too easily forgotten.

— Mairead Small Staid, Reading in the Age of Constant Distraction

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My favorite kinds of books to read are the ones that do more than just tell you a story. They do more than just set the scene or paint the picture.

— Taylor Swift, Taylor Swift On What Makes The Perfect Pop Song

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What does C.S. Lewis keep at the back of his wardrobe? Narnia business!

— David Stuart Davies, via twitter.com

Clean Funny Books

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Black History Month is a great time to highlight the work of black authors in the U.S. (and beyond), but of course, these literary works are worth honoring year round.

— Caroline Bologna, 50 Unmissable Books By Black Writers From The Past 5 Years

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The journal includes a list for every week of the year and helps you discover new ways to connect with each other.

— Elsie Larson, 52 Lists For Togetherness

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I know it's not cool to say and it's not big and flashy but I love books, and I want my life to be about what I actually love.

— Joe Goldberg (Penn Badgley), YOU, Season 1: Maybe

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That’s sad. People buying books because of what’s popular, and not because they wanna be moved or changed in some way.

— Guinevere Beck (Elizabeth Lail), YOU, Season 1: Pilot

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Now that 2018 is rolling to a close (good riddance) it's time to reflect on everything that happened this year.

— Marie Claire, The Best Books of 2018, According to Our Editors

Books 2018 Reading Best Books

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I don’t know anyone for whom fame has been a mental health benefit.

— Sara Benincasa, Reading Joan Didion in California Restaurants

Reading Books Restaurants Memoir Joan Didion Writers Mental Health Fame Hollywood

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2018 draws to a close, I’m continuing a favorite tradition of mine and sharing my year-end lists. It gives me a moment to pause and reflect on the year through the books, movies, and music that I found most thought-provoking, inspiring, or just plain loved. It also gives me a chance to highlight talented authors, artists, and storytellers – some who are household names and others who you may not have heard of before. Here’s my best of 2018 list - I hope you enjoy reading, watching, and listening.

— Barack Obama, Barack Obama's Annual Year-End List

New Year 2019 Books Music

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I think Twitter is the exact opposite of a book. A book is such a considered thing, such a safe space of the mind where you just go to and it’s not immediately interactive and it has different eyes on it. Twitter, for me … is just an impulsive rash response.

— Matt Haig, Matt Haig: ‘I think books can save us. They sort of saved me’

Twitter Books Impulsive

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These are my books. I like stories with magic powers in them. Either in kingdoms on Earth or on foreign planets. Usually I prefer a girl hero, but not always.

— Suzy Bishop (Kara Hayward), Moonrise Kingdom

Books magic powers Earth girl hero

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What works now is content that galvanizes people. Instagram pages that turn into book deals have followers that do more than just smile and keep scrolling. These pages can show that the content is being reposted and shared to people who aren’t even on Instagram. Those are the signs of an Instagram book that will move off the internet and onto bookshelves.

— Rachel Vogel and Rachel Kramer Bussel, How To Get A Book Deal From Your Instagram Account

Instagram Social Media Books Publishing Followers Book Deals Authors Authorship Writing Writing In The Digital Age

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This is a silly thing to get hung up on, I know, but what bugs me about these pictures is how devoid they are of any engagement with what books really do.

— Hillary Kelly, The Annoying Instagram Trend of Throwing Yourself on a Pile of Open Books

Books Reading Instagram Social Media

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In Moshfegh’s darkly comic and profound novel, a troubled young woman evading grief decides to renew her spirit by spending the year sleeping. “I knew in my heart,” she tells the reader, “that when I’d slept enough, I’d be O.K.”

— The New York Times, 100 Notable Books of 2018

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I guess you could argue that the real prize was all the literature we consumed along the way — and, according to an analysis of studies examining the effects of reading fiction on social behavior, we’re probably a little nicer for it, too.

— Katie Heaney, Reading Fiction Makes You a Little Nicer

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For those enamored of Ferrante’s savage world, this expansion of the heart, along with a vision of the secret nerves that course through history, is a revelation. Many would argue that the books’ direct engagement of a reader’s empathy — a quality men have been shown to lack, at least in comparison to women — is exactly what good literature is supposed to do.

— Miles Klee, Why So Many Guys Are Obsessed With 'My Brilliant Friend' - MEL Magazine

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Develop lower-back pain from literal, not figurative, weight of book.

— Claire Friedman, How to Read “Infinite Jest”

LOL Infinite Jest David Foster Wallace humor satire Reading Books

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Dr. Seuss makes me feel like I’m Lin-Manuel Miranda when I’m reading to my children.

— Neil Patrick Harris, Neil Patrick Harris reveals the books that have inspired him

Books Reading Recommendations

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The desire to buy more books than you can physically read in one human lifetime is actually so universal, there’s a specific word for it: tsundoku. Defined as the stockpiling of books that will never be consumed, the term is a Japanese portmanteau of sorts, combining the words “tsunde” (meaning “to stack things”), “oku” (meaning “to leave for a while”) and “doku” (meaning “to read”).

— Katherine Brooks, There's A Japanese Word For People Who Buy Too Many Books

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Back when Pottermania was at its peak in the early 00s, J.K. Rowling was credited with getting kids excited about reading — but if people don’t continue to read other books, explore different tastes, and encounter new characters, worlds and ideas, then what was the point?

— Philip Ellis, The Problem With trying to Make Harry Potter "Woke"

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I was made for the library, not the classroom. The classroom was a jail of other people’s interests. The library was open, unending, free.

— Ta-Nehisi Coates, Between the World and Me

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I now am able to ask you to read this book the way you would watch a play: not to emerge saying, "The play is right!" but rather to observe that the play reveals human nuance, contradiction, limitation, joy, connection, and the tragedy of separation.

— Sarah Schulman, Conflict Is Not Abuse: Overstating Harm, Community Responsibility, and the Duty of Repair

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There are times when the entire world seems wrong. The way a reptile room without any reptiles seems wrong. The way a bookshelf without any books seems wrong. Or a loved one’s house without the loved one.

— Lemony Snicket (Patrick Warburton), A Series of Unfortunate Events, Season 1: The Reptile Room: Part Two

Wrong entire world imbalanced reptile Books loved one

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When you read an enormous number of books, you are going to learn a great deal of information that might not be useful for a long time. But then, suddenly, like a strike of lightning or a grand piano falling out of a window, an opportunity arises to use the information gleaned from even the most unlikely piece of reading.

— Lemony Snicket (Patrick Warburton), A Series of Unfortunate Events, Season 2: The Hostile Hospital: Part Two

Read Books information Simile Examples Opportunity

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There are countless types of books in this world, which makes good sense because there are countless types of people.

— Justice Strauss (Joan Cusack), A Series of Unfortunate Events, Season 1: The Bad Beginning: Part Two

Countless Books World Types varieties

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Don't try to read what you think you're supposed to read. Read what you enjoy.

— Jeff Haden, How to Read a Lot More Books (Especially If You Don't Like to Read)

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Sally had confided in Carol throughout their year-long friendship, and especially over that summer, about her loneliness and longing for a boyfriend. How that seemed impossible in Camden, where too many people knew about her kidnapping. Where she was viciously mocked by boys and girls alike. Branded a slut. Shunned.

— Sarah Weinman, The Last Days of the Real Lolita

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DANG! What's up wit' all these books!?

— Anders Holmvik (Anders Holm), Workaholics, Season 2: Heist School

Dang Books what's up Confused

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Well, my brother has his sword, and I have my mind, and a mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone.

— Tyrion Lannister (Peter Dinklage), Game of Thrones, Season 1: The Kingsroad

sword Mind Books whetsone Simile Examples

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Lisa: Mom, Dad, this biography of Peter Ueberroth is only 99 cents. And I found the new Al Gore book.

Marge: 'Sane Planning, Sensible Tomorrow.'

Lisa: Yeah, I hope it's as exciting as his other book, 'Rational Thinking, Reasonable Future.'

— Lisa Simpson (Yeardley Smith), The Simpsons, Season 6: Grampa vs. Sexual Inadequacy

Books Reading Sane sensible Exciting rational thinking

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There’s a market for diverse books, and readers are hungry for a broader spectrum of lived experience in their literature. Women want to read about themselves, and domestic thrillers represent an opportunity to dig deeply into the lives of women in a way that counters misogynistic trends in fiction, but the genre is falling short as it fails to dig deeper into the full spectrum of what it means to be a woman living in a man’s world.

— s.e. smith, Who Gets Left Behind in the “Gone Girl” Craze?

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I certainly enjoy a good business book often, but lately I’ve been really loving a book that kind of goes beyond just work into all parts of your life.

— Emma Chapman, My Favorite Self-Help and Happiness Books

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Aesthetics in literature are important, but literature as aesthetics makes me nervous. When did a candle-topped pyramid of paperbacks become a symbol of depth?

— Sloane Crosley, The Virtues Of Shelf-lessness

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I mean, publicity is hard. Publicists LOVE books and they LOVE their authors, but... Imagine you've got 30 sled dogs to feed and not enough food. You give each dog the bare minimum to keep it alive and sneak extra food to the strongest pullers. You've got to keep pulling.

— Delilah S. Dawson, via twitter.com

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The really important point here is that your debut book/series/year DOES NOT PREDICT YOUR CAREER. It's not any indicator of future success. Publishers know and understand this. Just keep writing the best books you can. Keep innovating without fear. Keep that hope.

— Delilah S. Dawson, via twitter.com

Writing Writing A Book writing a novel Writing Advice Writer's Truth author Books selling books Publishing publishing industry publishing a book

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If I could change 1 thing about my debut year as an author, I wish someone in power had looked me in the eye and said, 'You wrote a good book, and you're a good writer, but we are not pushing your book. There is no way it will hit list. Just have fun.' Truth > disappointment.

— Delilah S. Dawson, via twitter.com

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When I wake up in the morning I’m still miserable, so being prestigious is beside the point.

— Lynne Tillman, A Conversation Between Nell Painter And Lynne Tillman

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Just because it's a small town doesn't mean we're all rubes. Believe it or not, some of us read. We even write.

— Camille Preaker (Amy Adams), Sharp Objects, Season 1: Dirt

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While self-help and wellness culture may be a $3.7 trillion industry, the narrators of these books don’t buy the idea that it will save us.

— Maris Kreizman, Self-Destruction Beats Self-Help In Two Of The Most Exciting Books Of The Year

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A deserted library in the morning—there's something about it that really gets to me. All possible words and ideas are there, resting quietly.

— Haruki Murakami, Kafka On The Shore

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I have always felt that I owe it to books (my longest and greatest love) to hear them out, especially when it’s one recommended by someone whose opinion I value.

— Katie Heaney, Why It’s So Hard to Stop Reading Books You Don’t Even Like

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Whether it’s Pride month or not, there’s always a fabulous slew of LGBTQ+ books on the available to read.

— Judith Utz, 10 Best LGBTQ Books You Need To Be Reading

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Bob: Your book? You mean like a bible?

Rebecca: Kind of, but less sci-fi.

— Rebecca Bunch (Rachel Bloom), Crazy Ex-Girlfriend, Season 3: Getting Over Jeff.

Bible life advice Books

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You want weapons? We’re in a library! Books! The best weapons in the world!

— The Doctor (David Tennant), Doctor Who, Series 2: Tooth and Claw

Knowledge Is Power Books Reading In Praise of Books library

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On its sunny surface, The Pisces is indeed a beach read. Take one step further, and it’s a sort of magical realism-style romance.

— Jenni Avins, There’s so much more to “The Pisces” than hot merman sex

Books Reading Melissa Broder

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Paul Tremblay's new novel is equal parts gripping, horrifying, and mesmerizing.

— Brennan Carley, The New Horror Novel That Will Totally Fuck You Up

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Slowly, like a movie fade out, the real world evaporates. I'm alone, inside the world of the story. My favorite feeling in the world.

— Haruki Murakami, Kafka On The Shore

Reading Novels Books reading novels immersion with books Stories Bookworm Book Lover

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Seriously, though, not buying a book until the series is complete because you're mad at some authors for not finishing theirs is a great way to ensure there won't be any more books.

— Sam Sykes, via twitter.com

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Books are the windows through which the soul looks out. A house without books is like a room without windows.

— Horace Mann, The Duty of Owning Books

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If you read a book, rate it.
If you loved a book, share it.
If you care about a book, talk it up.

I cannot tell you the strength of word-of-mouth. It is vast. You have power.

— V.E. Schwab, via twitter.com

Reading Books supporting writers supporting authors supporting books supporting novels Novels Writers

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Books and writers give such immense and unexpected comfort, it really is something else. Grateful, as ever.

— Lisa Lucas, via twitter.com

Books Stories Novels Writers Authors comfort in books comfort in reading Reading

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Any rational society would either kill me or give me my books.

— Hannibal Lector, Red Dragon

Books civilization

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My father loved The Old Man and the Sea, so I tried to love it. It left me unmoved. Mostly, I kept hoping the fish would get away.

— GQ, The 21 Most Overrated Books Ever

LOL Books Reading Classic Lit Overrated

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If you pirate a book and enjoy it, you’ll want more from that author, right? But you stole it, so the writer didn’t get paid. The publisher didn’t see sales. No more books from that author. You hurt writer, publisher, AND readers. Get it from a library if you can’t afford to buy.

— Alan Baxter, via twitter.com

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One day's exposure to mountains is better than cartloads of books. See how willingly Nature poses herself upon photographers' plates. No earthly chemicals are so sensitive as those of the human soul.

— John Muir, John of the Mountains: The Unpublished Journals of John Muir,

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These writers, and their works, inspire us to keep pushing towards a truly intersectional, inclusive feminism that can truly topple the patriarchy once and for all.

— The Rumpus, What to Read When You Want to Celebrate Feminism

Writing Reading Books Feminist Literature feminism Feminist

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Books make up no small part of human happiness.

— Frederick the Great, via www.bartleby.com

Books Reading Happiness Youth

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My books are excellent man repellent.

— Roxane Gay, Roxane Gay's books are man repellent

Roxane Gay feminism Books

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One of the great epiphanies of my lifetime was realizing that I disliked so many female characters because they were created by men who didn’t like women.

— Rainbow Rowell, via twitter.com

characters Books Novels female characters

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Books feed and cure and chortle and collide.

— Gwendolyn Brooks, Selected Poems

Poetry Books Reading beauty Beautiful Words

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Ew, books are gross.

— Gretchen Cutler (Aya Cash), You're the Worst, Season 3: The Last Sunday Funday

Anti-Reading Illiteracy Gross Books

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Like any good pie, some revenge plots rise above the rest.

— Kim Savage, Reading With A Vengeance — 11 YA Books About Revenge

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If I had my life to live over again, I would have made a rule to read some poetry and listen to some music at least once every week.

— Charles Darwin, Life and Letters of Charles Darwin - Volume 1: By Charles Darwin - Illustrated

Reading Importance of Reading Books

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Writers aren’t (always) creating Easter egg hunts for readers, hiding references for them to find. But generally, you can assume that if you DO find something, it was put there on purpose for you.

— Celeste Ng, via twitter.com

Writers Writing Literature Novels Books

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Books are often far more than just books.

— Roxane Gay, Bad Feminist: Essays

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Don’t label yourself a bad reader. You have a normal condition called “brain chatter” and I have found the best way to settle my brain down and pay attention to the text is to simply acknowledge when my brain is being extra noisy and has lots to “say” about what it’s reading. I literally tell my brain to quiet down and let me read.

— Stephanie St.Claire, How to Read One Book a Week

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I honestly had no fucking clue what I was doing, I just made it up as I went along.

— Amy Kaufman, 'There's Something They Want to Hide': A Conversation With Bachelor Nation Author Amy Kaufman

Writing How to be a writer Books How to write a book

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I prefer to get my news from books.

— Ryan Holiday, What is your preferred news source?

News Media Books Quote of the Moment

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Books are like seeds: they come to life when you read them & grow spines & leaves. I need trees around me as I need books around me, so building bookshelves is something like planting trees.

— Roger Deakin, Notes From Walnut Tree Farm

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Libraries are time-machines. Libraries are wildwoods. Libraries are galaxies. Libraries are magic portals into learning & dreaming. Libraries are vital for social mobility.

— Robert Macfarlane, via twitter.com

library Libraries libraries are important Knowledge Books Wisdom

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Read more books, I guess, is what I’m trying to say. Read stories about other people, other emotions. Get emotions that you can’t get from daily life just now.

— Sam Sykes, via twitter.com

emotions Feelings Books Stories Empathy Reading

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The only updates you need to send an agent reading your query is if you've received an offer of representation or the Nobel Prize. Everything else irrelevant.

— Kate McKean, via twitter.com

Writing Books publishing a book Book Publishing Book Publishing Tips publishing industry finding an agent querying your manuscript manuscript

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Books break the shackles of time, proof that humans can work magic.

— Carl Sagan, Cosmos

Books Inspiring Magic

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Nothing is more impotent than an unread library.

— John Waters, Role Models

Knowledge Books Best Reading Quotes

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Being rich is not about how much money you have or how many homes you own; it’s the freedom to buy any book you want without looking at the price and wondering if you can afford it.

— John Waters, Role Models

Wealth Knowledge Books

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If the 1st Amendment means anything, it means that a state has no business telling a man, sitting alone in his own house, what books he may read or what films he may watch.

— Thurgood Marshall, via thurgoodmarshall.com

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DO read books with compelling characters whose choices drive the plot.

DON’T tape hornet nests to your hands and call yourself Hornethands Jones.

— Sam Sykes, via twitter.com

Books Novels preferences characters

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I feel like 'fun' is frequently dismissed as a quality of a book, usually played down as escapism or, usually, just as a side note. Few people actually talk about what a fun book means.

For me, it’s never meant escapism. 'Fun' means joy. It means the prose is exciting, the characters are great, the action is delightful. All of this translates to reader investment.

People who sneer at the concept of a fun book as mindless escapism may understand reader investment, but they rarely understand that you have to earn it.

That’s not to say fun is the ONLY way to earn reader investment. But it’s a good way. And it’s harder to do than it looks. Hence why there is a not insignificant number of dry, joyless fantasy novels out there.

— Sam Sykes, via twitter.com

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