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I am a man, and alive ... For this reason I am a novelist. And being a novelist, I consider myself superior to the sain, the scientist, the philosopher, and the poet, who are all great master sof different bits of man alive, but never get the whole hog. - D. H. Lawrence, preface to Shestov, All Things Are Possible, 1938

To me, the greatest pleasure of writing is not what it's about, but the inner music the words make. - Truman Capote, McCall's, November 1967

The good writing of any age has alway been the product of someone's neurosis, and we'd have a mighty dull literature if all the writers that came along were a bunch of happy chuckleheads. - William Styron, interview, Writers at Work, 1958

Literature is my Utopia. Here I am not disenfranchized. No barrier of the senses shuts me out from teh sweet, gracious discourse of my book friends. They talk to me without embarrassment or awkwardness. - Helen Keller, The Story of My Life, 1902

"You can't get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me." - C.S. Lewis

"Books may well be the only true magic." - Alice Hoffman

"A book is a version of the world. If you do not like it, ignore it; or offer your own version in return."

Imaginary Homelands - Salman Rushdie

A book is like a man - clever and dull, brave and cowardly, beautiful and ugly. For every flowering thought there will be a page like a wet and mangy mongrel, and for every looping flight a tap on the wing and a reminder that wax cannot hold the feathers firm too near the sun. - John Steinbeck

My books are water; those of the great geniuses are wine. Everybody drinks water. - Mark Twain (1835-1910)

I would be the most content if my children grew up to be the kind of people who think decorating consists mostly of building enough bookshelves. - Anna Quindlen

I am eternally grateful.. for my knack of finding in great books, some of them very funny books, reason enough to feel honored to be alive, no matter what else might be going on.

Kurt Vonnegut (1922 - ), Timequake, 1997

"He has never been known to use a word that might send a reader to the dictionary." - William Faulkner (about Ernest Hemingway)

"Poor Faulkner. Does he really think big emotions come from big words?" - Ernest Hemingway (about William Faulkner)