“The way to read a fairy tale is to throw yourself in.”

“A fairy tale...on the other hand, demands of the reader total surrender; so long as he is in its world, there must be for him no other.”

“For a desert island, one would choose a good dictionary rather than the greatest literary masterpiece imaginable, for, in relation to its readers, a dictionary is absolutely passive and may legitimately be read in an infinite number of ways.”

“A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us.”

“Lovers of small numbers go benignly potty,Believe all tales are thirteen chapters long,Have animal doubles, carry pentagrams,Are Millerites, Baconians, Flat-Earth-Men.Lovers of big numbers go horribly mad,would have the Swiss abolished, all of usWell-purged, somatotyped, baptised, taught baseball:They empty bars, spoil parties, run for Congress.”

“Although you be, as I am, one of those Who feel a Christian ought to write in prose,For poetry is magic: born in sin, you May read it to exorcies the Gentile in you.”

“Like everyone else, I have my black list of unfavorite authors and critics, and among intimate friends I sometimes say exactly what I think of them, but I have the feeling that to express my opinions publicly would be in bad taste, that, to people whom one does not know personally, one should speak only of the authors and critics one is fond of. I find reading savage reviews like reading pornography; though I often enjoy them, I feel a bit ashamed of myself for doing so. Still, I must admit that I find Nietzsche's list of his "impracticals" great fun.”