A novel should be a book of questions, not a book of answers. – Hilary Mantel, The Guardian, 28 January 2006
If I read a book and it makes my whole body so cold no fire can ever warm me, I know that is poetry. – Emily Dickinson, letter to Thomas Higginson, c. 1870
Books say: she did this because. Life says: she did this. Books are where things are explained to you. – Julian Barnes, Flaubert’s Parrot
I prefer bread and water with books, to the best of eating without them. – Stephen F. Austin, Prison Journal, published 1899
These, and forty more terrific quotes about books and reading, come from that great blog, Interesting Literature. Click the link and explore!
The image is of Keats, drawn by Joseph Severn, 1816.