Reading Worth Quotes

When I became poet laureate, I was in a slightly uncomfortable position because I think a lot of poetry isn't worth reading.

Not every book has to be loaded with symbolism, irony, or musical language, but it seems to me that every book-at least every one worth reading-is about something.

Most of the literary classics are worth reading, if you've nothing better to do.

The publishing industry, unsurprisingly, is full of different people who love different things and express that love in different languages. Find the people, the editors and agents, with whom you share some language, and some sense of what makes literature worth reading.

If time is precious, no book that will not improve by repeated readings deserves to be read at all.

Some people claim that it is okay to read trashy novels because sometimes you can find something valuable in them. You can also find a crust of bread in a garbage can, if you search long enough, but there is a better way.

The real impulse of most books is to tell a story to keep the reader lashed to the page. I don't get why that's a proper use of an adult's time.

People who grew up on my books are now able to get the point across to others that they're worth reading.