Reading, after a certain age, diverts the mind too much from its creative pursuits. Any man who reads too much and uses his own brain too little falls into lazy habits of thinking.

I read a lot when I’m travelling and always have a couple of books on the go.

I do a little thing about the way people shake the sweetener packet. You know, like they’re all excited. I want to get all the granules down to one end. I love all these rituals.

My father used to wear the same pants for like a week.

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.

This is the first age that’s ever paid much attention to the future, which is a little ironic since we may not have one.

As far as I’m concerned, I’m a writer who’s writing books, and therefore, I don’t want to die. You’d miss the end of the book wouldn’t you? You can’t die with an unfinished book.

The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.

The ‚free-floating intellectual‘ may occupy himself with problems because of their inherent interest and importance, perhaps to little effect.

Habit converts luxurious enjoyments into dull and daily necessities.

To describe my scarce leisure time in today’s terms, I always default to reading.

I would always want printed books.

Life being very short, and the quiet hours of it few, we ought to waste none of them in reading valueless books.

Science is a way of thinking much more than it is a body of knowledge.

Any reading not of a vicious species must be a good substitute for the amusements too apt to fill up the leisure of the labouring classes.

I’m sure most parents read to their children to explain what certain things mean. So books are a good way to convey a message to anybody. Everybody reads.

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

The charm of history and its enigmatic lesson consist in the fact that, from age to age, nothing changes and yet everything is completely different.

I read a lot of obscure books and it is nice to open a book.

Honestly, I think we should be delighted people still want to read, be it on a Kindle or a Nook or whatever the latest device is.

Reading and writing are connected. I learned to read very early so I could read the comics, which I then started to draw.

Every now and then I read a poem that does touch something in me, but I never turn to poetry for solace or pleasure in the way that I throw myself into prose.

I never could have done what I have done without the habits of punctuality, order, and diligence, without the determination to concentrate myself on one subject at a time.

Silence is golden when you can’t think of a good answer.

I never desire to converse with a man who has written more than he has read.

Tears come from the heart and not from the brain.

How young can you die of old age?

I am invariably late for appointments – sometimes as much as two hours. I’ve tried to change my ways but the things that make me late are too strong, and too pleasing.

Prime time for men is, say, 35 to 45. Then they level off and fall off.

Enemies are so stimulating.

You cannot open a book without learning something.

The book you don’t read won’t help.

Censorship ends in logical completeness when nobody is allowed to read any books except the books that nobody reads.

A flippant, frivolous man may ridicule others, may controvert them, scorn them; but he who has any respect for himself seems to have renounced the right of thinking meanly of others.

I read poetry to save time.

I read to my kid, but I can’t stand reading.

At eighteen our convictions are hills from which we look; at forty-five they are caves in which we hide.

There is no physical law precluding particles from being organised in ways that perform even more advanced computations than the arrangements of particles in human brains.

Youth cannot know how age thinks and feels. But old men are guilty if they forget what it was to be young.

My books are like water; those of the great geniuses are wine. (Fortunately) everybody drinks water.

I’m not well-read, but when I read, I read well.

We are all now connected by the Internet, like neurons in a giant brain.

In today’s world, having money has allowed people who are extremely uncool to think that they’re cool and carry it like that. People who really are cool and people who really are artists and have ideas have to literally turn in their cool card to society just to make it past the age of 28.

The arrogance of age must submit to be taught by youth.

The key thing about a book is that you lose yourself in the author’s world.

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

Hesitation increases in relation to risk in equal proportion to age.

At fifty everyone has the face he deserves.

How is it possible that a being with such sensitive jewels as the eyes, such enchanted musical instruments as the ears, and such fabulous arabesque of nerves as the brain can experience itself anything less than a god.

Choose the life that is most useful, and habit will make it the most agreeable.

An intellectual is a person who’s found one thing that’s more interesting than sex.

Everywhere I go, the kids call me ‚the book lady.‘ The older I get, the more appreciative I seem to be of the ‚book lady‘ title. It makes me feel more like a legitimate person, not just a singer or an entertainer. But it makes me feel like I’ve done something good with my life and with my success.

O Day of days when we can read! The reader and the book, either without the other is naught.

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

Leave all the afternoon for exercise and recreation, which are as necessary as reading. I will rather say more necessary because health is worth more than learning.

No great intellectual thing was ever done by great effort.

Bad news isn’t wine. It doesn’t improve with age.

I’m turned on by guys who are cultured. That’ll keep me intrigued. They don’t have to have a single degree, but they should speak other languages or know things about other parts of the world or history or certain artists or musicians. I like to be taught. I like to sit on that side of the table.

I’ve never wanted to use my age as a gimmick, as something that would get me ahead of other people. I’ve wanted the music to do that.

A bookstore is one of the only pieces of evidence we have that people are still thinking.

It’s different from being 21 and you think there’s endless amount of opportunities. At 33, the ending is much, much closer.