“Reading. Reading was the stable backdrop against which my life was played.”

“The sure mark of an unliterary man is that he considers "I've read it already" to be a conclusive argument against reading a work...Those read great works,on the other hand will read the same work ten, twenty or thirty times during the course of there life.”

“Built like an oak tree, against which I could pitch my pillow and read; mornings, I could curl into the crook of your branches.”

“This was my only and my constant comfort. When I think of it, the picture always rises in my mind, of a summer evening, the boys at play in the churchyard, and I sitting on my bed, reading as if for life.”

“What one wrote playfully, another reads with tension and passion; what one wrote with tension and passion, another reads playfully.”

“People who think that love, sex, marriage, work, play, life and death are serious matters are urged NOT to read this book. Buy it, yes, but don't read it. [Regarding "The Fool's Progress"]”