Preamble

I do not collect quotes. However. Over the years, I have come across some striking ones, mostly on the reading experience, which I felt compelled to add to my Goodreads quote collection. I last updated that collection in 2018. Happily, I have just enough quotes in there to fulfill today’s quota.

The Bookish Quotes

Subcreation

Subcreation is not just a desire, but a need and a right; it renews our vision and gives us new perspective and insight into ontological questions that might otherwise escape our notice within the default assumptions we make about reality.

Mark J.P. Wolf, Building Imaginary Worlds: The Theory and History of Subcreation

…So that’s maybe not the most exciting quote to kick off this list, but it is my oldest saved quote, so that’s what I’m starting with. 😛 Hear hear to this reasoning for why we as human beings engage in the art of subcreation.

Libraries

I was born, and then I was quietly resentful of that fact for a few years…but then I went to a library and it was okay.

Helen Oyeyemi

I wish I had saved the source for this one. It was something she said during a book launch, or some event of the sort where she was speaking in front of an audience. I added it in 2014, so the event was from that year or earlier.

She sounds like someone who spends a lot of time in libraries, which are the best sorts of people.

Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making

A little self-important but it’s true.

Stories Ending

If you have never wept bitter tears because a wonderful story has come to an end and you must take your leave of the characters with whom you have shared so many adventures, whom you have loved and admired, for whom you have hoped and feared, and without whose company life seems empty and meaningless.

If such things have not been part of your own experience, you probably won’t understand what Bastian did next.

Michael Ende, The Neverending Story

I read The Neverending Story when I was a bit too young for it. I don’t remember this passage at the time. I think I came across while browsing quotes one day. But the sentiment immediatley resonated, so here it is.

I will always be here, in my old chair by the door, waiting for you, whenever you are lonesome. Our little house will always look just the same as when we first blew the dust off the bookshelves, and the kettle will always be just about to boil. Sometimes I will be young, and sometimes I will be old, sometimes you will be young, and sometimes you will be old. But for as long as forever, I will keep a room for you. I swear by the sparkle in my eye and the spring in your step.

Catherynne M. Valente, The Girl Who Raced Fairyland All the Way Home

Valente’s second entry on the list! And both are from the Fairyland series. I remember getting misty eyed when I first read this in the final book. Perhaps it’s about time I give that series a reread…

Allegory

I cordially dislike allegory in all its manifestations, and always have done so since I grew old and wary enough to detect its presence. I much prefer history – true or feigned– with its varied applicability to the thought and experience of readers. I think that many confuse applicability with allegory, but the one resides in the freedom of the reader, and the other in the purposed domination of the author.

J.R.R. Tolkien, The Fellowship of the Ring

Now here we are getting a little philosophical… I agree with Tolkien on allegory, possibly because my reading habits and prefernces have been so strongly shaped by his writing. I want to discover applicability on my own in the fantasy I read, and not just detect the story as a faint substitute for some ‘real world’ problem.

Fairy Tales

Some day you will be old enough to start reading fairy tales again.

C.S. Lewis

Probably the most famous quote I have on my list. I’m not a big Lewis reader but another sentiment that rings deeply true.

Being a Reader

I think serious readers of books are 5% of the population. If there are good TV shows or a World Cup or anything, that 5% will keep on reading books very seriously, enthusiastically. And if a society banned books, they would go into the forest and remember all the books. So I trust in their existence. I have confidence.

Haruki Murakami

I don’t read Murakami anymore but here is another sentiment that feels more relevant than ever.

The question isn’t whether I have time to read or not (time that nobody will ever give me, by the way), but whether I’ll allow myself the pleasure of being a reader.

Daniel Pennac, Comme un roman

If you have not read The Rights of the Reader, I strongly recommend it. That book has stuck with me for over 10 years now.

Book Collecting

My books are my brain and my heart made visible.

Merilyn Simonds, Gutenberg’s Fingerprint: A Book Lover Bridges the Digital Divide

Never has my reason for owning books been put some plainly!

Do you have a favourite bookish quote?
Link your TTT post in the comments!