I was an omnivore at reading, so that everything I ever read contributed.

Right now I'm so old that if I had a big gush of money, I don't know what I'd do with it. I don't travel anymore. I don't need anything, don't want anything. I'd give it to my son, I guess, and let him enjoy it.

These are just the tip of the iceberg, because I read and read and read. I read everything.

I was a carpenter for a time and everybody watches what you do.

Sometimes some of these little side excursions are useful and I manage to fit them in the book somewhere.

I'd never been published when I was young.

But I'm so slow on it because I find it terribly hard writing blind on computers. The computer speaks to me, but it's just so slow, I'm so terribly slow using it.

A reader is not supposed to be aware that someone's written the story. He's supposed to be completely immersed, submerged in the environment.

I just wrote what I felt like writing since they seemed to sell.

There was a writer in the '20s called Christopher Morley, who I remember a little bit of, who had some influence on me, but I couldn't tell you what it was.

I do read books. I suppose it's more or less the same thing, but at least I'm alone and I'm an individual. I can stop anytime I want, which I frequently do.

I haven't been to a movie since somebody gave me free tickets to Star Wars, which I went to.

I never worked in an office in my life.

I thought that automobiles were going to have mufflers and go fast and airplanes were going to fly fast.

I haven't sold to the movies. In other words, I haven't gotten any enormous checks yet.

It seems to limit you; when you're working in an office, you're a creature in a small cell under somebody's supervision and surveillance.

But I've sure worked at jobs where I have been under inspection.

I never made lots of money at it, but I sold enough.

This flattery has been rather slow in coming. I think all of sudden late in life now I'm getting some credit for what I've done. Which is gratifying, but it's kind of a little late.

I worked for half a cent a word. I'm not a fast writer to begin with, so for the first few years I had do other things.

I was an omnivore at reading, so that everything I ever read contributed.

But Roy Rockwood, it was science fiction for the sake of science fiction.

I don't read other science fiction. I don't read any at all.

In fact, almost every job you get somebody watching you.

As I mentioned, I was a carpenter for a time.

The story was such that I couldn't make a graceful ending and then make a graceful new beginning. I could have, but I didn't want to. So, it isn't the most graceful way of writing a story. This new story is, I think, is pretty good stuff. I'm pleased with it anyway.

Then there was Clark Ashton Smith, who wrote for Weird Tales and who had a wild imagination. He wasn't a very talented writer, but his imagination was wonderful.

So I'll write it, and then I'll find out that I actually wrote something that is utterly useless. You can't use it in the story and it doesn't fit. So I just throw it away. I've done that countless times.

But, for instance, when I was awfully young, I read all the Oz books. They were an enormous influence on me.

I got done writing Ports of Call and suddenly realized I have far too much material for the book.

Well, I think everything I've ever read contributes to the background from which I write.

Happiness is fugitive dissatisfaction and boredom are real.

Freedom, privileges, options, must constantly be exercised, even at the risk of inconvenience.

What the war did was give me the opportunity of three years of continuous reading, and it was in the course of reading that I became convinced that I should become an economist.

It is a common temptation of Satan to make us give up the reading of the Word and prayer when our enjoyment is gone; as if it were of no use to read the Scriptures when we do not enjoy them, and as if it were no use to pray when we have no spirit of prayer.

And that's how I start myself. I usually go back a couple of pages, maybe to the beginning of the chapter, and I start reading. And as I'm reading, I'm tweaking - putting in a different word, changing the syntax, putting that clause over there, you know that sort of thing.

The greatest gift is the passion for reading. It is cheap, it consoles, it distracts, it excites, it gives you knowledge of the world and experience of a wide kind. It is a moral illumination.

I had plenty of pimples as a kid. One day I fell asleep in the library. When I woke up, a blind man was reading my face.

I get letters from readers who say that they have always hated reading, but somebody suggested one of my books, they actually finished the book and enjoyed it, and they're going on to read another book. I'm thrilled that they have figured out that reading is fun.

I was reading the poems of Rochester. Rochester made himself out to be bisexual, but I think that was only to shock. Most of his poetry is sexual, even pornographic.

I like the storytelling and reading the letters, the long-distance dedications. Anytime in radio that you can reach somebody on an emotional level, you're really connecting.

I was reading a book... 'the history of glue' - I couldn't put it down.

Dr. Phil was very helpful and caring. I believe he helped all of us there and watching how to better relate, understand, and communicate with our families and loved ones. Dr. Phil recommended reading my new book.

No entertainment is so cheap as reading, nor any pleasure so lasting. She will not want new fashions nor regret the loss of expensive diversions or variety of company if she can be amused with an author in her closet.

A book worth reading is worth buying.

I don't think anyone wants a reader to be completely lost - certainly not to the point of giving up - but there's something to be said for a book that isn't instantly disposable, that rewards a second reading.

Reading is a basic tool in the living of a good life.

Every single pleasure I can imagine or have experienced is more delightful, more of a pleasure, if you take it in small sips, if you take your time. Reading is not an exception.

It is to be deeply regretted that the clergymen would oppose an effort to teach the people the Bible truths; nevertheless, we find much opposition everywhere, and many clergymen will attempt to prevent the people from reading what is here written.