The worst thing about new books is that they keep us from reading the old ones.

لا أحب الكتب الجديدة .. أنها تمنعني من قراءة الكتب القديمة

Whoever converses much among the old books, will be something hard to please among the new.

It is impossible for individuals to examine the huge number of new books that are being published every day

Ah, Fist, it’s the curse of history that those who should read them, never do.

The multitude of books is making us ignorant.

Is there anywhere on earth exempt from these swarms of new books? Even if, taken out one at a time, they offered something worth knowing, the very mass of them would be an impediment to learning from satiety if nothing else

Friends, family, school, they were just obstacles in the way of getting more books.

This mistaken preference for the modern books and this shyness of the old ones is nowhere more rampant

We are flooded with books; books come pouring out of the publishing meat grinder. And, the quality has dropped severely. We may be able to print a book better, but intrinsically the book, perhaps, is not better than it was. We have a backlist of books, superb books, by Margaret Wise Brown, by Ruth Krauss, by lots of people. I’d much rather we just took a year off, a moratorium: no more books. For a year, maybe two — just stop publishing. And get those old books back, let the children see them! Books don’t go out of fashion with children; they only go out of fashion with adults. So that kids are deprived of the works of art which are no longer around simply because new ones keep coming out.

from The Openhearted Audience (1980)

It's not just the books under fire now that worry me. It is the books that will never be written. The books that will never be read. And all due to the fear of censorship. As always, young readers will be the real losers.

The misery of having no time to read a thousand glorious books.

The oldest books are still only just out to those who have not read them.

The enormous multiplication of books in every branch of knowledge is one of the greatest evils of this age; since it presents one of the most serious obstacles to the acquisition of correct information, by throwing in the reader's way piles of lumber in which he must painfully grope for the scraps of useful matter, peradventure interspersed.