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"We only understand that which already within us."
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"The unread story is not a story; it is little black marks on wood pulp. The reader, reading it, makes it live: a live thing, a story."

"If I do a poetry reading I want people to walk out and say they feel better for having been there - not because you've done a comedy performance but because you're talking about your father dying or having young children, things that touch your soul."

"If one cannot enjoy reading a book over and over again, there is no use in reading it at all."

"In a book, even the real bastards can't hurt you. And you can never loose a friend you make in a book. When you get to a sad part, no one's there to see you cry. Or wonder why you don't cry when you should."

"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 reason he cannot possibly read every work solemly or gravely. For he will read 'in the same spirit that the author writ.'... He will never commit the error of trying to munch whipped cream as if it were venison."

"And I've got some screenplays and plays ready to dip into when I need to."

"Bessie asked if I would have a book: the word book acted as a transient stimulus, and I begged her to fetch Gulliver's Travels from the library. This book I had again and again perused with delight."
Explore more quotes by Henri Frederic Amiel

"Blessed be childhood, which brings down something of heaven into the midst of our rough earthliness."

"The man who insists upon seeing with perfect clearness before he decides, never decides. Accept life, and you must accept regret."

"Common sense is the measure of the possible; it is composed of experience and prevision; it is calculation applied to life."
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