I like a thick book because it will steady a table, a leather volume because it will strop a razor, and a heavy book because it can be thrown at a cat.

Reading is thinking with someone else's head instead of one's own.

When you read a good book it is like an author is right there. Sitting and talking to you right there. That is why I don't like to read books.

To want to meet an author because you like his books is as ridiculous as wanting to meet the goose because you like pate de foie gras.

Reading is like the sex act - done privately, and often in bed.

The pleasure of all reading is doubled when one lives with another who shares the same books.

All my good reading, you might say, was done in the toilet ... There are passages in Ulysses which can be read only in the toilet - if one wants to extract the full flavour of their content.

When a book and a head collide and there is a hollow sound, is it always from the book?

There is no mistaking a real book when one meets it. It is like falling in love.

The most invigorating form of reading matter is, of course, a will.