The difference between literature and journalism is that journalism is unreadable and literature is not read.

I seem to turn out stories that violate the discipline of the short story form and don’t obey the rules of progression for novels. I don’t think about a particular form: I think more about fiction, let’s say a chunk of fiction.

I have two pairs of reading glasses. One pair is for reading fiction, the other for non-fiction. I’ve read the Bible twice wearing each pair, and it’s the same.

If anything, I get most upset because I wanna read a good paper first thing in the morning. And if I see a lie about myself flash across the front of the cover, I don’t think much of the rest of the newspaper.

Let us read and let us dance – two amusements that will never do any harm to the world.

It is also true that one can write nothing readable unless one constantly struggles to efface one’s own personality. Good prose is like a windowpane.

All my stories are like the Greek and Roman myths, and the Egyptian myths, and the Old and New Testament.

I always tell audiences when I talk about writing: Writing isn’t something I do; writing is something that I am. I am writing – it’s just an expression of me.

I don’t know how much longer I’ll be around. I’ll probably be writing when the Lord says, ‚Maya, Maya Angelou, it’s time.‘

Are you laboring under the impression that I read these memoranda of yours? I can’t even lift them.

When you’re writing a novel, you don’t want the reader to come out of it voting yes or no to some question. Life is more complicated than that. Reality simply consists of different points of view.

The United States has made serious mistakes in the conduct of its foreign affairs, which have had unfortunate repercussions long after the decisions were taken.

Most rock journalism is people who can’t write, interviewing people who can’t talk, for people who can’t read.

Buying books would be a good thing if one could also buy the time to read them in: but as a rule the purchase of books is mistaken for the appropriation of their contents.

I learned to read very early so I could read the comics, which I then started to draw.

So foul and fair a day I have not seen.

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

Men seldom, or rather never for a length of time and deliberately, rebel against anything that does not deserve rebelling against.

I guess I’m just inspired to tell stories.

Read the best books first, or you may not have a chance to read them at all.

My own books drive themselves. I know roughly where a book is going to end, but essentially the story develops under my fingers. It’s just a matter of joining the dots.

A lot of the time when I write about the person that I love, I feel like I’m writing about New York.

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.

I always have to be writing.

Hell is empty and all the devils are here.

I have never started a poem yet whose end I knew. Writing a poem is discovering.

People who read the tabloids deserve to be lied to.

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.

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

Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body.

The ways of the Lord are different from the ways of man. Man’s ways remove people from office or business when they grow old or become disabled. But man’s ways are not and never will be the Lord’s ways.

If a victory is told in detail, one can no longer distinguish it from a defeat.

Look at situations from all angles, and you will become more open.

College isn’t in everyone’s hearts. I am living proof, though, that school doesn’t mess up your plans. It gives you more experiences to write about.

Writing bores me so.

It is healthier, in any case, to write for the adults one’s children will become than for the children one’s ‚mature‘ critics often are.

Writing and cafes are strongly linked in my brain.

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.

The thing about fantasy – there are certain things you just don’t do in fantasy.

I write in order to attain that feeling of tension relieved and function achieved which a cow enjoys on giving milk.

Why need I volumes, if one word suffice?

‚Mystic River‘ just smelled interesting to me. So I read it and liked it right away. Even the dialogue in it was great.

I’ve read a lot of really great characters in some really crappy stories, where I said, like, ‚Boy I could shine here, but the story sucks.‘ I don’t want to be part of that.

This is not writing at all. Indeed, I could say that Shakespeare surpasses literature altogether, if I knew what I meant.

Become slower in your journey through life. Practice yoga and meditation if you suffer from ‚hurry sickness.‘ Become more introspective by visiting quiet places such as churches, museums, mountains and lakes. Give yourself permission to read at least one novel a month for pleasure.

In 7th grade, I believe, I wrote my first rap song. It was about everything I was seeing, everything that was going on around me.

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

The story as told in The Odyssey doesn’t hold water. There are too many inconsistencies.

A poem begins in delight and ends in wisdom.

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

Read over your compositions, and when you meet a passage which you think is particularly fine, strike it out.

Poetry is what gets lost in translation.

Whatever came to mind, whatever came to hand, I would read.

No book includes the entire world. It’s limited. And so it doesn’t seem like an aesthetic compromise to have to do that. There’s so much other material to write about.

I am the freest author in the world.

To me, reading a fashion magazine is the last thing I need to do. I’ve got books I need to read.

Froth at the top, dregs at bottom, but the middle excellent.

Read not to contradict and confute, nor to believe and take for granted… but to weigh and consider.

When I am writing, I do not distinguish between the natural and supernatural. Everything seems real. That is my world, you could say.

Once writing has become your major vice and greatest pleasure, only death can stop it.

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