I love the movies, and when I go to see a movie that's been made from one of my books, I know that it isn't going to be exactly like my novel because a lot of other people have interpreted it. But I...

In a certain sense, a writer is an exile, an outsider, always reporting on things, and it is part of his life to keep on the move. Travel is natural.

We read our children stories starring elephants and monkeys and bears to teach them about nobility, curiosity and courage, to warn them against selfishness and stubbornness.

I think even back as far as 'Lord of the Rings,' there was always the chance that 'The Hobbit' would be made, even way back then. Of course at that point, Peter Jackson didn't probably think at that...

The oldest book I have is a treatise on architecture from the 17th century.

At the age of 12 I won the school prize for Best English Essay. The prize was a copy of Somerset Maugham's 'Introduction To Modern English And American Literature.' To this day I keep it on the shelf...

At high school, instead of the weekly essay, I would write a poem, and the teacher accepted that. The impulse was one of laziness, I'm certain. Poems were shorter than essays.

If it's a good work of adaptation, the book should remain a book and the film should remain a film, and you should not necessarily read the book to see the film. If you do need that, then that means...

As soon as war is declared it will be impossible to hold the poets back. Rhyme is still the most effective drum.

I've always had great respect for Paddington because he is amusingly English and eccentric. He is a great British institution and my generation grew up with the books and then Michael Horden's...

I love Paris in the summer, when it sizzles.

Don't tell me the moon is shining, show me the glint of light on broken glass.

The obscurity of a writer is generally in proportion to his incapacity.

To all to each a fair goodnight And pleasing dreams and slumbers light.

The profession of book writing makes horse racing seem like a solid stable business.

Hope that star of life's tremulous ocean.

For a country to have a great writer is to have another government.

The clock struck eleven with the respectful unobtrusiveness of one whose mission in life is to be ignored.

In his library he had been always sure of leisure and tranquility; and though prepared, as he told Elizabeth, to meet with folly and conceit in every other room in the house, he was used to be free...

You must live feverishly in a library. Colleges are not going to do any good unless you are raised and live in a library everyday of your life.

The anxiety, which in this state of their attachment must be the portion of Henry and Catherine, and of all who loved either, as to its final event, can hardly extend, I fear, to the bosom of my...

Henry is tired of winter, haircuts, and a squeamish comfy ruin—prone proud national mind, and Spring (in the city so called) Henry likes Fall. He would be prepared to live in a world of Fall...

This was a lucky recollection - - it saved her from something like regret.

Don't judge a book by its movie.

Reading makes immigrants of us all. It takes us away from home, but, most important, it finds homes for us everywhere.

Above all mediums, through which storytelling is conveyed, none has the potential to draw us in, to hold us spellbound, but the unassuming book.

I find novels compose my mind. Do you read novels too? - Reverend Finch's wife

It's been a long time. How have you been doing? I'm fine. How are you? You're looking very handsome today, Addolgar the Handsome, lord of my loins. At least that was what she'd like to say to him, but...

My generation must have despair. - Leonard Bernstein Ch 40/Dog Water Free, A Memoir

Those who do not read, they miss the important aspects of life.