My books hold between their covers every story I've ever known and still remember, or have now forgotten, or may one day read; they fill the space around me with ancient and new voices.
Interpretation
Books are a repository of stories and knowledge that enrich our lives in many ways.
In this quote, Alberto Manguel reflects on the profound role that books play in our lives. He suggests that books encompass not only the stories we remember but also those we have yet to discover, creating a vibrant space filled with voices from both the past and present. This highlights the timeless and ever-evolving relationship between readers and literature, emphasizing the importance of both remembering and exploring new narratives.
In practice
This quote could be used during a speech at a literary festival to emphasize the importance of reading.
The stories that unfold in the space of a writer's study, the objects chosen to watch over a desk, the books selected to sit on the shelves, all weave a web of echoes and reflections of meanings and affections, that lend a visitor the illusion that something of the owner of this space lives on between these walls, even if the owner is no more.
From fire, water, the passage of time, neglectful readers, and the hand of the censor, each of my books has escaped to tell me its story.
One book calls to another unexpectedly, creating alliances across different cultures and centuries.
It has always been my experience that, whatever groupings I choose for my books, the space in which I plan to lodge them necessarily reshapes my choice and, more important, in no time proves too small for them and forces me to change my arrangement. In a library, no empty shelf remains empty for long. Like Nature, libraries abhor a vacuum, and the problem of space is inherent in the very nature of any collection of books.
A society can exist - many do exist - without writing, but no society can exist without reading.
I have no feelings of guilt regarding the books I have not read and perhaps will never read; I know that my books have unlimited patience. They will wait for me till the end of my days.
True literacy is becoming an arcane art, and the nation is steadily "dumbing down."
For the future, primarily, we must educate people in science, engineering, technology and math.
For that reason you can't write with music playing, and anyone who says he can is either writing badly, or not listening to the music, or lying. You need to hear what you're writing, and for that you need silence
Books are not made for furniture, but there is nothing else that so beautifully furnishes a house.
I feel very strongly indeed that a Cambridge education for our scientists should include some contact with the humanistic side. The gift of expression is important to them as scientists; the best research is wasted when it is extremely difficult to discover what it is all about ... It is even more important when scientists are called upon to play their part in the world of affairs, as is happening to an increasing extent.
I find television very educating. Every time somebody turns on the set, I go into the other room and read a book.
Subscribe for the occasional hand-picked quote. No noise.