Bibliophiles Quotes

“...bookstores, libraries... they're the closest thing I have to a church.”
― Jim C. Hines, Libriomancer

“I do not just buy books; I collect them with the idea that they fit into a pattern of knowledge.”
― Omar Saif Ghobash, Letters to a Young Muslim

“Nevertheless we cherish all books, especially the unread ones, for who knows what secrets they might yield one day?
—p.397, as by Larry Zagorski, in his short story "The City of the Sun”
― Jake Arnott, The House of Rumour

“But as it turned out, the two had a great deal in common, for both Bailey and Thackeray (named for the famous novelist William Makepeace Thackeray, author of Vanity Fair) were devoted bibliophiles who believed that "a book a day kept the world at bay," as Thackeray was fond of saying. Bailey was the offspring of a generation of badgers who insisted that "Reader" was the most rewarding vocation to which a virtuous badger might be called and who gauged their week's anticipated pleasure by the height of their to-be-read pile. (Perhaps you know people like this. I do.)”
― Susan Wittig Albert, The Tale of Oat Cake Crag

“Literature takes us away from our grey everyday experience, but brings us back enriched with new sensibilities.”
― Willie van Peer

“I'm so glad I have my own copy. I can read them again and again. I can read them again and again on trains, all my life, and every time I do I'll remember today and it will connect up. (Is that magic?)”
― Jo Walton, Among Others

“This was, I thought, the language of shy men, men too much alone with their reading and their ideas - politics, war, distant countries, tyrants. Men who would bury their heads in such stuff just to avert their eyes from a woman's simple heartache.”
― Alice McDermott, Someone

“Alle meine gestohlenen Bücher tuschelten nachts miteinander, erzählten die Geschichten ihrer Entführung, kicherten dabei, freuten sich, dass ihre Eselsohren begradigt wurden, ihnen niemand mehr den Rücken knickte, ihre Kaffeeflecken weggebleicht wurden und man sie nun berührte, als würde man nicht nur mit den Fingern über Papier fahren, sondern selbst in den Tiefen ihrer Buchstaben, ihrer tintigen Sätze wühlen, tief in ihnen versinken und tiefer, tiefer und sie endlich im Arm halten, über ihren Rücken streichen, ihren Geruch einsaugen, ihren Umschlag wieder anlegen und zurechtstreichen. Nie mehr wieder nackt auf einem schmutzigen Küchentisch, Kehrseite nach oben liegen, und wer sie las, würde sie so nicht einfach zurücklassen, sich ankleiden und ausgehen, sondern mit ihnen im Arm einschlafen. Niemals hätte ich sie verlassen. Manche berührte ich so vorsichtig, als würde ich damit ein Verbrechen begehen, Schmetterlinge streicheln.”
― Cordula Simon, Ostrov Mogila

“But now books and men had gone their separate ways. Who has the patience for a book? Only a book.”
― John M. Keller, Abracadabrantesque