If you consider yourself to be a true book-lover, than you know full well the incredible magic of reading. Unfortunately, and somewhat miraculously, not everyone is sold on the activity, but these quotes on the power of books from famous readers and writers just may convince even the most stubborn non-readers to visit their local library and give it a try.
For as long as I can remember, my true love has always been reading. Ever since I was a little kid sneaking stories under the covers with a flashlight late at night, I have been obsessed with books, whether it be actually reading them, collecting them, writing about them, or, of course, talking about them. Ask anyone who has had a conversation with me and they will tell you that, inevitably, it leads to the same subject time and time again: reading.
Whether I am talking to a fellow book-lover or not, I'm quick to share new reading recommendations, discuss hot book club picks, and dish on author gossip. I am just as quick to try and convince non-readers why they should adopt my favorite hobby as their own. I gush about how fun and exciting discovering a new story can be, I praise reading's inspirational powers, and I spurt out the many ways books can actually make someone a better person.
Sadly, not everyone is swayed by my argument, which is why I've turned to celebrities to do my bidding for me and convince non-readers the true magic of cracking open a book.
In case you still need proof, either for yourself or someone you're trying to turn to the bookish side, here are 15 quotes about the power of books from actors, politicians, authors, and more.
“Reading is everything. Reading makes me feel like I’ve accomplished something, learned something, become a better person. Reading makes me smarter. Reading gives me something to talk about later on. Reading is the unbelievably healthy way my attention deficit disorder medicates itself. Reading is escape, and the opposite of escape; it’s a way to make contact with reality after a day of making things up, and it’s a way of making contact with someone else’s imagination after a day that’s all too real. Reading is grist. Reading is bliss.”
“Books were my pass to personal freedom. I learned to read at age three, and there discovered was a whole world to conquer that went beyond our farm in Mississippi.”
“You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, who had ever been alive.”
"Reading is an exercise in empathy. To read is to enter another world in a way different from any other art form. The reader is actively participating, activating the pages of a book simply by picking it up and beginning. We discover through reading that we are less alone, as the inner lives of characters on the page become accessible to us. No matter how foreign or different a life experience might be, the writer is always saying to the reader, and the reader to the writer, me too. I’ve been there too."
“When I'm really into a novel, I'm seeing the world differently during that time — not just for the hour or so in the day when I get to read. I'm actually walking around in a haze, spellbound by the book and looking at everything through a different prism.”
“I have often reflected upon the new vistas that reading has opened to me. I knew right there in prison that reading had changed forever the course of my life. As I see it today, the ability to read awoke inside me some long dormant craving to be mentally alive.”
“I like books that aren't just lovely but that have memories in themselves. Just like playing a song, picking up a book again that has memories can take you back to another place or another time.”
“Salvation is certainly among the reasons I read. Reading and writing have always pulled me out of the darkest experiences in my life. Stories have given me a place in which to lose myself. They have allowed me to remember. They have allowed me to forget. They have allowed me to imagine different endings and better possible worlds.”
