We, the writers, are sure that you, the readers, do not need a special invitation or inspiration to read, to lose yourself into a book. As a reader, you are certainly aware of the importance of reading throughout your life. If you’ve been bewitched a long time ago or not, if you’ve known times abundant in glorious novels or battled with dry spells, you surely felt that reading will always remain a defining part of your life.

For writers, however, reading is an absolute necessary, a sine qua non condition of the very life of an author. For the invaluable influence that great writers have on our subconscious mind; for the steady flow of ideas that fill the well we only glance into, on a moon-less night; for the dull technique… writers read.

And not only…

I believe that all visual arts are, to some extent, influenced by literature, thus complementing one other. Architecture or a painting can be the perfect backdrop for poetry or a literary work whose author, in return, was influenced by a work of art.

Below I have gathered, for readers everywhere, a series of quotes about the essential act of reading. Some you will recognize for sure; some I hope will become your favorites. Others, I hope, you will return to again and again, like I do.

Quotes on the Importance of Reading — 13 books to read on Halloween

‘When I have a little money, I buy books; and if I have any left, I buy food and clothes.’ Erasmus of Rotterdam

‘It is a great thing to start life with a small number of really good books which are your very own.’ – Arthur Conan Doyle

‘The reading of all good books is like conversation with the finest (people) of the past centuries.’ – Descartes

‘There is no Frigate like a Book To take us Lands away.’ – Emily Dickinson

The 1598 edition of John Manwood’s Lawes of the Forrest

‘Reading is the sole means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another’s skin, another’s voice, another’s soul.’ Joyce Carol Oates

‘You should never just read for ‘enjoyment.’ Read to make yourself smarter! Less judgmental. More apt to understand your friends’ insane behavior; or better yet, your own. Pick ‘hard books.’ Ones you have to concentrate on while reading. And for God’s sake, don’t let me ever hear you say, ‘I can’t read fiction. I only have time for the truth.’ Fiction is the truth.’ John Waters

‘For some of us, books are as important as almost anything else on earth. What a miracle it is that out of these small, flat, rigid squares of paper unfolds world after world after world, worlds that sing to you, comfort and quiet or excite you. Books help us understand who we are and how we are to behave. They show us what community and friendship mean; they show us how to live and die.’ Anne Lamott

‘I still love books. Nothing a computer can do can compare to a book. You can’t really put a book on the Internet. Three companies have offered to put books by me on the Net, and I said, ‘If you can make something that has a nice jacket, nice paper with that nice smell, then we’ll talk.’ All the computer can give you is a manuscript. People don’t want to read manuscripts. They want to read books. Books smell good. They look good. You can press it to your bosom. You can carry it in your pocket.’ Ray Bradbury

‘ A novel worth reading is an education of the heart. It enlarges your sense of human possibility, of what human nature is, of what happens in the world. It’s a creator of inwardness.’ Susan Sontag

‘Knowing you have something good to read before bed is among the most pleasurable of sensations.’ Vladimir Nabokov

‘By reading the writings of the most interesting minds in history, we meditate with our own minds and theirs as well. This to me is a miracle.’ Kurt Vonnegut

‘We should read to give our souls a chance to luxuriate.’ Henry Miller

‘To acquire the habit of reading is to construct for yourself a refuge from almost all the miseries of life.’ W. Somerset Maugham