The Saturday Writing Quote — on reading

With the weather changing, many of us have more time for reading, curling up in a favorite chair with a cup of coffee, tea, or chai and a good book. I’ve got a terrific stack waiting for me! So for October, a few excellent quotes on reading, especially its importance to writers and other creators.

“If I had to choose between writing and reading, I would choose to read, because there is so much I’ve yet to learn, so many worlds I’ve yet to visit, all secreted away between the pages of a book. Writing is what I do and how I communicate. Reading gives me permission for what I do by widening the lanes of my creativity and narrative ambition. Writing is work, but reading is pleasure. …

“Reading was a means to enter a different reality from the physical one I was forced to embody. I don’t want to contemplate how I would have endured these weeks without plunging into books, for pleasure and for research. I’m glad I didn’t have to.”

Sarah Weinman in “The Year I Went Bald,” about writing her first book, The Real Lolita, while undergoing treatment for breast cancer, in The Walrus