Anne Roiphe Quotes

Someone asked me, if I were stranded on a desert island what book would I bring... 'How to Build a Boat.'

This is the sixth book I've written, which isn't bad for a guy who's only read two.

I don't laugh that much, but I do like humorous books, and I like to entertain readers that way.

Perhaps if I knew I would be stranded on an island with but one book, I would choose the Bible. For no religious reason whatsoever, but because of the varieties of stories, which might be useful as the days pass.

I love Dickens because it makes me chuckle to myself so. He has taken me to another world and out of so many earthly miseries.

Don't give me books for Christmas; I already have a book.

A solitary child growing up in Africa, you're really quite dependent on books.

I started out with nothing. I still have most of it.

Books support us in our solitude and keep us from being a burden to ourselves.

I have studied Freud and that kind of thing. I just never thought I would need it.

Mike, did you ever see the movie 'Cast Away?' In that movie, Tom Hanks' only friend was a ball named Wilson. In this game, Russell Wilson's only friend is a football.

They say give a man a fish and he'll eat for a day. But teach a man to fish and he'll get his own show on the Discovery Channel.

There was nothing to react to except wind and trees [in Cast Away]. It was like making a silent movie.

I've always liked reading books that contain funny lines or situations, and maybe because my work is known chiefly for its violence and misery, I made a more conscious attempt with The Heavenly Table to do that myself.

A hiker who was lost in a blizzard said he stayed alive by digging a snow tunnel and burning dollar bills for warmth. Today he was offered a job as President Obama's economic adviser.

As Miss America, my goal is to bring peace to the entire world and then get my own apartment.

Thank goodness my education was neglected.

Congratulations. The fact that you're reading this means you've taken one giant step closer to surviving until your next birthday.

[When] he's here, he's always reading. He says books stop time. I myself think he's crazy...Don't tell anyone, but when he reads something that he likes he gets real happy, turns on the music, and dances by himself, or with a broom sometimes.

I am not collecting copies of the cheaper editions of Omar Khayyám. I gave the last four that I received to the lift-boy, and I like to think of him reading them, with FitzGerald's notes, to his aged mother. Lift-boys always have aged mothers; shows such nice feeling on their part, I think.

I have a cartoon where the guy is pretty much, he's a regular-sized guy, but he's the size of the island. He's saying no man is an island, but I come pretty damn close.

Mr. Gladstone read Homer for fun, which I thought served him right.

Robinson Crusoe, the self-sufficient man, could not have lived in New York city.

Irony gives us, at little expense, the impression that we are experienced psychologists.