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Literature adds to reality, it does not simply describe it. It enriches the necessary competencies that daily life requires and provides; and in this ...more

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Those of us who are blamed when old for reading childish books were blamed when children for reading books too old for us. No reader worth his salt tr...more

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We do not enjoy a story fully at the first reading.

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No book is really worth reading at the age of ten which is not equally – and often far more – worth reading at the age of fifty and beyond.

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Naturally, since I myself am a writer, I do not wish the ordinary reader to read no modern books. But if he must read only the new or only the old, I ...more

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You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.

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A clever schoolboy's reaction to his reading is most naturally expressed by parody or imitation.

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A children's story that can only be enjoyed by children is not a good children's story in the slightest.

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Every age has its own outlook. It is specially good at seeing certain truths and specially liable to make certain mistakes. We all, therefore, need th...more

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It is a good rule after reading a new book, never to allow yourself another new one till you have read an old one in between.

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We read to know we are not alone.

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In order to pronounce a book bad it is not enough to discover that it elicits no good response from ourselves, for that might be our fault.

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If we are to use the words ‘childish’ and ‘infantile’ as terms of disapproval, we must make sure that they refer only to those characteristics of chil...more

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The first demand any work of art makes upon us is surrender. Look. Listen. Receive. Get yourself out of the way. (There is no good asking first whethe...more

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The true reader reads every work seriously in the sense that he reads it whole-heartedly, makes himself as receptive as he can. But for that very reas...more