Cory Doctorow on the People of the Book

“We are the people of the book. We love our books. We fill our houses with books. We treasure books we inherit from our parents, and we cherish the idea of passing those books on to our children. Indeed, how many of us started reading with a beloved book that belonged to one of our parents? We force worthy books on our friends, and we insist that they read them. We even feel a weird kinship for the people we see on buses or airplanes reading our books, the books that we claim. If anyone tries to take away our books—some oppressive government, some censor gone off the rails—we would defend them with everything that we have. We know our tribespeople when we visit their homes because every wall is lined with books. There are teetering piles of books beside the bed and on the floor; there are masses of swollen paperbacks in the bathroom. Our books are us. They are our outboard memory banks and they contain the moral, intellectual, and imaginative influences that make us the people we are today.”

Cory Doctorow, (born 17 July 1971)

Source: Writers Write Creative Blog,”Literary Birthday – 17 July – Cory Doctorow”

Theophile Gautier on Writers as Artists

“Any man who does not have his inner world to translate is not an artist.”

~ Theophile Gautier

Source: BrainyQuote

Joan Didion on the Impulse to Write

“The impulse to write things down is a peculiarly compulsive one, inexplicable to those who do not share it, useful only accidentally, only secondarily, in the way that any compulsion tries to justify itself. I suppose that it begins or does not begin in the cradle. Although I have felt compelled to write things down since I was five years old, I doubt that my daughter ever will, for she is a singularly blessed and accepting child, delighted with life exactly as life presents itself to her, unafraid to go to sleep and unafraid to wake up. Keepers of private notebooks are a different breed altogether, lonely and resistant rearrangers of things, anxious malcontents, children afflicted apparently at birth with some presentiment of loss.”

~ Joan Didion (born December 5, 1934), Slouching Towards Bethlehem

Source: GoodReads

Theodora Goss on People and Adventures

‎”I think there are people who don’t have adventures, and people who have adventures, and (rarest of all) people who are adventures.”

~ Theodora Goss

Source: Theodora Goss on Facebook

Rex Stout on the Relationship Between Genius and Getting There

“Genius is fine for the ignition spark, but to get there someone has to see that the radiator doesn’t leak and no tire is flat.”

~ Rex Todhunter Stout (December 1, 1886 – October 27, 1975), The Doorbell Rang

Source: GoodReads

Mark Twain on the Necessity of Avoiding People Who Belittle Your Ambitions

“Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you, too, can become great.”

~ Mark Twain, aka Samuel Langhorne Clemens (November 30, 1835 – April 21, 1910)

Source: Quotes4All: Mark Twain

Jane Rule on Bearing Witness

“If we don’t bear witness as citizens, as people, as individuals, the right that we have had to life is sacrificed. There is a silence, instead of a speaking presence.”

~ Jane Rule

Source: Brainy Quote: Jane Rule

Edward Albee on the Optimism of Writing

“The act of writing is an act of optimism. You would not take the trouble to do it if you felt that it didn’t matter.”

~ Edward Albee

Source: Eminent Quotables: What Writers Say About Writing

Benjamin Disraeli on the Universality of Knowledge

“It is knowledge that influences and equalizes the social condition of man; that gives to all, however different their political position, passions which are in common, and enjoyments which are universal.”

~ Benjamin Disraeli

Source: “Benjamin Diraeli” The Quotations Page

Anais Nin on How We See Things

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are.”

~ Anais Nin

Source: BrainyQuote