"This would be...a book that would be a trapdoor down into some place dark. A place only you could go, alone, when you opened the cover. Because only books have that power."

Literature, Books, Imagination, Solitude, Power

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"This would be...a book that would be a trapdoor down into some place dark. A place only you could go, alone, when you opened the cover. Because only books have that power."

Exlpore more Literature quotes

"The best of fiction, as we know, of course, doesn't tell the truth; it tales the truth."

Criss Jami, American Philosopher

Literature, Fiction, Truth, Life

"Stories are like children. They grow in their own way."

Madeleine L'Engle, American Novelist

Literature, Story, Growth, Children, Creativity

"In great literature, I become a thousand different men but still remain myself."

C. S. Lewis, British Author

Literature, Identity, Transformation

"It is my opinion that a story worth reading only in childhood is not worth reading even then."

C. S. Lewis, British Author

Literature, Childhood, Learning, Truth

"It is usually unbearably painful to read a book by an author who knows way less than you do, unless the book is a novel."

Mokokoma Mokhonoana, South African Philosopher

Literature, Pain, Learning, Ignorance, Reading

"The literary man re-reads, other men simply read."

C. S. Lewis, British Author

Literature, Reading, Reflection, Knowledge

"And she never could remember and ever since that day what Lucy means by a good story is a story which reminds her of the forgotten story in the Magician's Book."

C. S. Lewis, British Author

Literature, Storytelling, Memory, Meaning, Imagination

"One of the most dangerous of literary ventures is the little, shy, unimportant heroine whom none of the other characters value. The danger is that your readers may agree with the other characters."

C. S. Lewis, British Author

Literature, Danger, Values, Perception

"Like someone excitedly relating a story, only to find the words petering out, the path gets narrower the further I go, the undergrowth taking over."

Haruki Murakami, Japanese Writer

Literature, Storytelling, Uncertainty, Expression, Limitation

"I didn't read so much Japanese literature. Because my father was a teacher of Japanese literature, I just wanted to do something else."

Haruki Murakami, Japanese Writer

Literature, Choice, Father, Interest

Explore more quotes by Chuck Palahniuk

"Maybe humans are just the pet alligators that God flushed down the toilet."

Humor

"You realize that our mistrust of the future makes it hard to give up the past."

Trust

"You can only hold a smile for so long, after that it's just teeth."

Emotion

"If you can change the way people think, she said.The way they see themselves.The way they see the world.If you do that, you can change the way people live their lives.And that's the only lasting thing you can create."

Change

"Skinny guys fight till they're burger."

Survival

"Do you know why most survivors of the Holocaust are vegan? It's because they know what it's like to be treated like an animal."

Ethics

"HELLO! Look at me. HELLO! I am so ZEN. This is BLOOD. This is NOTHING. Hello. Everything is nothing, and it's so cool to be ENLIGHTENED. Like me."

Philosophy

"Personal identity seems like it's just such an American archetype, from Holly Golightly re-inventing herself in 'Breakfast At Tiffany's' to Jay Gatsby in 'The Great Gatsby.' It seems like the sort of archetypal American issue. If you're given the freedom to be anything, or be anyone, what do you do with it?"

Identity

"Of the big horror movies of the '70s, you have 'The Omen,' 'The Sentinel,' 'Rosemary's Baby,' 'The Stepford Wives,' 'Burnt Offerings' - these are all romantic fatalist movies where there's a sort of glimmer of hope... but darkness wins."

Culture

"If this is death, if we are dead or dying or even if we are living and just going to die, then what do we have to fear? What are we worried about? I think the knowledge of death is freeing. That pressure we feel, the weight of life and its impending conclusion, is imaginary. And the fact that we're all in this together is unifying: there's solidarity in mortality."

Mortality