Pastoral Resources

The reason Saul Bellow doesn't talk to me anymore is because he knows his new novels are not worth reading.

My father assigned me to keep his scrapbooks. At first I was interested in reading only his rave notices, but I got interested in reading what the critics were saying about whether the play was good or not.

American high school students trail teenagers from 14 European and Asian countries in reading, math and science. We're even trailing France.

I certainly gained a lot by reading about Shanghai.

If I'm not afraid when I'm reading a script, that means I know I've done it before. If I read something and think, Wow, I can't play this part, then I want to play it more.

I found myself facing a Christian Science Reading Room. My God! It had been eight years. There had never been any renunciation of religion on my part, but like so many people, it was a gradual fading away.

I don't think anyone wants a reader to be completely lost - certainly not to the point of giving up - but there's something to be said for a book that isn't instantly disposable, that rewards a second reading.

When I die there may be a paragraph or two in the newspapers. My name will linger in the British Museum Reading Room catalogue for a space at the head of a long list of books for which no one will ever ask.

I write early in the morning, usually after reading portions of at least half a dozen newspapers on the web.

Growing up, I never gave a thought to being a writer. All I ever wanted to be was a traveler and explorer. Science-fiction allowed me to go places that were otherwise inaccessible, which is why I started reading it. I was going to be a lawyer, but I got saved.

Few are sufficiently sensible of the importance of that economy in reading which selects, almost exclusively, the very first order of books. Why, except for some special reason, read an inferior book, at the very time you might be reading one of the highest order?

I was improvising before I was reading music. I was just trying to play things on the clarinet by ear. I think my ear is one of my greatest assets.

If you would not be forgotten as soon as you are dead, either write something worth reading or do things worth writing.

Either write something worth reading or do something worth writing.

It's just a matter of writing the kind of book I enjoy reading. Something better be happening at the beginning, and then on every page after, or I get irritated.

There is nothing more distressing or tiresome than a writer standing in front of an audience and reading his work.

The strongest results were in Florida and Texas. In just one year in a Texas charter school, an average student gained 7 percentile points in math and 8 percentile points in reading, while Florida charter schools improved student performance by 6 percentile points.

I remember the first reading of the script we had and everybody was sitting around the table. I was very impressed with the level of acting that was in the room, particularly with Jennifer who has so much responsibility.

Reading Stephen King's book, On Writing, was like being cornered and forced to have a long, drawn out mental enema.

Reading is important.