TheTenthReader

“Do you know why books such as this are so important? Because they have quality. And what does the word quality mean? To me it means texture. This book has pores. It has features. This book can go under the microscope. You’d find life under the glass, streaming past in infinite profusion. The more pores, the more truthfully recorded details of life per square inch you can get on a sheet of paper, the more ‘literary’ you are. That’s my definition anyway. Telling detail. Fresh detail. The good writers touch life often. The mediocre ones run a quick hand over her. The bad ones rape her and leave her for the flies. So now you see why books are hated and feared? They show the pores in the face of life.”
― Ray Bradbury, Fahrenheit 451

“Don't for God's sake speak as saint to sinner, but as you yourself to me myself - poor me!”
― Thomas Hardy, Thomas Hardy: Tess of the D'Urbervilles; The Mayor of Casterbridge; Far from the Madding Crowd

“This is not a war, this is a test of how far man can be degraded”
― Sebastian Faulks, Birdsong

“Home is people. Not a place. If you go back there after the people are gone, then all you can see is what is not there any more.”
― Robin Hobb, Fool's Fate