I interviewed – no – had lunch with Harper Lee several years ago, trying to convince Harper Lee to do “To Kill a Mockingbird” for the book club. She wouldn’t do it. She said, “Honey, I said everything I wanted to say.”
I read a book one day and my whole life was changed.
Books, which we mistake for consolation, only add depth to our sorrow.
Immersing oneself in the problems of a book is a good way to keep from thinking of love.
Oscar Wilde always makes me smile – with respect and admiration. His short stories prove that it is possible to be both sarcastic, even cynical, but deeply compassionate. Just seeing the cover of one of Wildes books in a bookshop makes me smile.
I was at the end of my tether when my first book was published. For eight years I didn’t make a penny, I worked so hard, didn’t drink, didn’t enjoy life.
Let me first state forthright that contrary to what we’ve often read in books and heard from preachers, when you are a woman, you don’t feel like the Devil.
I believe strongly in an author’s moral responsibility. But his first obligation is to write good books.
To read a novel is to wonder constantly, even at moments when we lose ourselves most deeply in the book: How much of this is fantasy, and how much is real?
The greatest advantage of books does not always come from what we remember of them, but from their suggestiveness, their character-building power.
The best books are those which lift us to a higher plane where we breathe a purer atmosphere.
The inspiration of a single book has made preachers, poets, philosophers, authors, and statesmen. On the other hand, the demoralization of a single book has sometimes made infidels, profligates, and criminals.
Now we sit through Shakespeare in order to recognize the quotations.
I cannot choose one hundred best books because I have only written five.
Books are never finished. They are merely abandoned.
At twilight, nature is not without loveliness, though perhaps its chief use is to illustrate quotations from the poets.
I put all my genius into my life; I put only my talent into my works.
All bad poetry springs from genuine feeling.
Why was I born with such contemporaries?
The imagination imitates. It is the critical spirit that creates.