The whole world's writing novels, but nobody's reading them. We need readers. More readers. Fewer writers.

People who don't read are brutes.

The books that influence the world are those that it has not read.

The whole world's writing novels, but nobody's reading them.

The reason why so few good books are written is, that so few people who can write know anything. In general an author has always lived in a room, has read books, has cultivated science, is acquainted with the style and sentiments of the best authors, but he is out of the way of employing his own eyes and ears. He has nothing to hear and nothing to see. His life is a vacuum.

The reason why so few good books are written is, that so few people that can write know anything. In general an author has always lived in a room, has read books, has cultivated science, is acquainted with the style and sentiments of the best authors, but he is out of the way of employing his own eyes and ears. He has nothing to hear and nothing to see. His life is a vacuum.

Many people say they want to write a book but very few do it.

No one reads; if someone does read, he doesn't understand; if he understands, he immediately forgets.

Men of power have not time to read; yet men who do not read are unfit for power

It is reasonable to assume that, by and large, what is not read now will not be read, ever. It is also reasonable to assume that practically nothing that is read now will be read later. Finally, it is not too farfetched to imagine a future in which novels are not read at all.

Mamma was aware that there were many people who read what she called trashy books, but it was news to her that there were people who read nothing at all.

We live in a world where you could go for the rest of your life never reading a book — after school. And that to me is a sad fate ... because books hold so much.

Can I be blunt on this subject? If you don't have time to read, you don't have the time (or the tools) to write. Simple as that.

I often wonder what I'd do if there weren't any books in the world.