Reading is to the mind what exercise is to the body. Richard Steele

"To read is to surrender oneself to an endless displacement of curiosity and desire from one sentence to another, from one action to another, from one level of a text to another. The text unveils itself before us, but never allows itself to be possessed; and instead of striving to possess it we should take pleasurein its teasing." David Lodge

"Books are magic. They take into other worlds; they bring danger, excitement, wonder, enchantment. You can travel the world or other worlds with a book." Gene Kemp

"When I asked a group of children recently 'What is a poem?', one child replied - 'A poem is like a present... in words.'" Robert Fisher

"When I let myself be affected by a book, I let into myself new customs and new desires. The book does not reproduce me, it re-defines me, pushes at my bounderies, shatters the pailings that guard my heart. strong texts work along the borders of our minds and alter what already exists." Jeanette Winterson