The ear is the only true writer and the only true reader.

Read 500 pages every day. That's how knowledge works. It builds up like compound interest.

No tears in the writer, no tears in the reader. No surprise in the writer, no surprise in the reader.

A capacity, and taste, for reading, gives access to whatever has already been discovered by others. It is the key, or one of the keys, to the already solved problems.

The art of reading and studying consists in remembering the essentials and forgetting what is not essential.

I did study Shakespeare, that was sort of my thing; I got a Literature A-level, which is my only claim to academic fame.