I get letters from readers who say that they have always hated reading, but somebody suggested one of my books, they actually finished the book and enjoyed it, and they’re going on to read another book. I’m thrilled that they have figured out that reading is fun.
Why are we rock stars? Because we’re morons. We sleep all day, we play music at night and very rarely do we sit around reading the Washington Journal.
As a rule it usually takes three or four readings for me to be interested in a script, and if I’m interested I’ll read it three or four times before I make a strong decision.
You may be sitting in a room reading this book. Imagine one note struck upon the piano. Immediately that one note is enough to change the atmosphere of the room – proving that the sound element in music is a powerful and mysterious agent, which it would be foolish to deride or belittle.
If you want to have a creative culture, you can’t get it by reading books. You get it by example.
I hadn’t learned to read by third grade, which wasn’t unusual for some kids. I knew something was wrong because I couldn’t see or understand the words the way the other kids did. I wasn’t the least bit bothered – until I was sent back to the second-grade classroom for reading help after school.
For though there never was so much reading matter put before the public, there was never less actual ‘reading’ in the truest and highest sense of the term than there is at present.
There are no taboos. Every topic is open, however shocking. It is the way that the topics are handled that’s important, and that applies whether it is a 15-year-old who is reading your book or someone who is 55.
The first time someone called me a role model, I remember thinking, ‘What does that mean?’ But I feel aware of it when I’m reading scripts.
I never wanted to be famous and the only part I like is that it means people are reading my books and listening to me on TV and radio.
They see us interacting with people, they see us doing serious interviews, they see us having fun, and when you’re conversing with someone, you get a much clearer impression of who that person is than if they are just reading into a news piece.
A library is the delivery room for the birth of ideas, a place where history comes to life.
A book is like a piece of rope; it takes on meaning only in connection with the things it holds together.
The way a book is read, which is to say, the qualities a reader brings to a book can have as much to do with its worth as anything the author puts into it.
But truths on which depends our main concern, That ’tis our shame and misery not to learn, Shine by the side of every path we tread With such a lustre he that runs may read.
He that runs may read.
The mind, relaxing into needful sport, Should turn to writers of an abler sort, Whose wit well managed, and whose classic style, Give truth a lustre, and make wisdom smile.
The things that mount the rostrum with a skip, And then skip down again, pronounce a text, Cry hem; and reading what they never wrote Just fifteen minutes, huddle up their work, And with a well-bred whisper close the scene!
When you read a novel, your own imagery is the most important. It’s what makes reading such a wonderful thing.
I have always felt that I understood a phenomenon only to the extent that I could visualise it. Much of the charm organic chemical research has for me derives from structural formulae. When reading chemical journals, I look for formulae first.