I never see thy face but I think upon hell-fire.

Everything in the world exists to end up in a book.

I’ve only written one science-fiction book: ‚Fahrenheit 451.‘ That book is a book based on real facts and my hatred of people who destroy books.

Some books leave us free and some books make us free.

Hence poetry is something more philosophic and of graver import than history, since its statements are rather of the nature of universals, whereas those of history are singulars.

Yet, it is true, poetry is delicious; the best prose is that which is most full of poetry.

The most important thing is to read as much as you can, like I did. It will give you an understanding of what makes good writing and it will enlarge your vocabulary.

I don’t do Shakespeare. I don’t talk in that kind of broken English.

Excessive literary production is a social offense.

My literature is much more the result of a paradox than that of an implacable logic, typical of police novels. The paradox is the tension that exists in my soul.

In the souls of the people the grapes of wrath are filling and growing heavy, growing heavy for the vintage.

My favourite poem is the one that starts ‚Thirty days hath September‘ because it actually tells you something.

Reading made Don Quixote a gentleman, but believing what he read made him mad.

If you had a million Shakespeares, could they write like a monkey?

Every man lives in two realms: the internal and the external. The internal is that realm of spiritual ends expressed in art, literature, morals, and religion. The external is that complex of devices, techniques, mechanisms, and instrumentalities by means of which we live.

A book worth reading is worth buying.

Any good piece of material like Shakespeare ought to be open to reinterpretation.

As he was valiant, I honour him. But as he was ambitious, I slew him.

Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move. Doubt truth to be a liar, But never doubt I love.

Find enough clever things to say, and you’re a Prime Minister; write them down and you’re a Shakespeare.

There is more treasure in books than in all the pirate’s loot on Treasure Island.

A book has got smell. A new book smells great. An old book smells even better. An old book smells like ancient Egypt.

The bookful blockhead, ignorantly read, With loads of learned lumber in his head.

And all who told it added something new, and all who heard it, made enlargements too.

For awhile after you quit Keats all other poetry seems to be only whistling or humming.

As flies to wanton boys, are we to the gods; they kill us for their sport.

I was a chemistry major, but I’m always winding up as a teacher in English departments, so I’ve brought scientific thinking to literature. There’s been very little gratitude for this.

Yes, there is a terrible moral in ‚Dorian Gray‘ – a moral which the prurient will not be able to find in it, but it will be revealed to all whose minds are healthy. Is this an artistic error? I fear it is. It is the only error in the book.

The mere brute pleasure of reading the sort of pleasure a cow must have in grazing.

False face must hide what the false heart doth know.

The connection between psychology, mythology, and literature is as important as the connection between psychology and biology and the hard sciences.

In designing the scenery and costumes for any of Shakespeare’s plays, the first thing the artist has to settle is the best date for the drama. This should be determined by the general spirit of the play more than by any actual historical references which may occur in it.

He ate and drank the precious Words, his Spirit grew robust; He knew no more that he was poor, nor that his frame was Dust.

A great value of antiquity lies in the fact that its writings are the only ones that modern men still read with exactness.

It’s not easy to define poetry.

I was reading the dictionary. I thought it was a poem about everything.

The discipline of the written word punishes both stupidity and dishonesty.

To be or not to be is not a question of compromise. Either you be or you don’t be.

If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all.

‚Discworld‘ is taking something that you know is ridiculous and treating it as if it is serious, to see if something interesting happens when you do so.

I don’t think I’ve ever read poetry, ever.

I have no interest in Shakespeare and all that British nonsense… I just wanted to get famous and all the rest is hogwash.

What’s in a name? That which we call a rose by any other name would smell as sweet.

I don’t read books much.

Love sought is good, but given unsought, is better.

I think when people mean that Discworld books have become darker they really mean the series is growing up. In ‚The Colour of Magic‘ most of the city is set alight. It’s a joke, in much the same way that the Earth is destroyed almost at the start of Douglas Adams’s ‚The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy.‘

Poetry is nearer to vital truth than history.

Well, if Fortune be a woman, she’s a good wench for this gear.

I was always very curious as a young man about why older writers who I met seemed so indifferent to what was going on, whereas I, in my 20s, was reading everything. Everything seemed important. But they were only interested in the writers they admired when they were young, and I didn’t understand it then, but now, now I understand it.

Poetry is a deal of joy and pain and wonder, with a dash of the dictionary.

From a child I was fond of reading, and all the little money that came into my hands was ever laid out in books. Pleased with the ‚Pilgrim’s Progress,‘ my first collection was of John Bunyan’s works in separate little volumes.

In the first book of my Discworld series, published more than 26 years ago, I introduced Death as a character; there was nothing particularly new about this – death has featured in art and literature since medieval times, and for centuries we have had a fascination with the Grim Reaper.

I think I work much harder on the children’s books. I suppose I enjoy that. I find it interesting that although there are more than 30 books in the Discworld series, it is the four that were written for children which have won the awards. I’ve never been quite certain why this is.

Miss a meal if you have to, but don’t miss a book.

The ear is the only true writer and the only true reader.

To thine own self be true, and it must follow, as the night the day, thou canst not then be false to any man.

Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this respect, it irrigates the deserts that our lives have already become.

You see, the interesting thing about books, as opposed, say, to films, is that it’s always just one person encountering the book, it’s not an audience, it’s one to one.

Nine-tenths of the existing books are nonsense and the clever books are the refutation of that nonsense.

I cannot live without books.

Jane Austen is the pinnacle to which all other authors aspire.