8 quotes
The woman beside me hesitated a moment, and then said softly, “This man is different, Mary. He’s a Reader.”
Mockingbird (1980)
I must get inside that library! I must have books again. If I cannot read and learn and have things that are worth thinking about, I would rather immolate myself than go on living.
Mockingbird (1980)
It is the greatest achievement of my life. Yes, I have used that word: a great achievement. My learning to read was an achievement. Nobody knows that but me.
Mockingbird (1980)
I feel free and strong. If I were not a reader of books I could not feel this way. Whatever may happen to me, thank God that I can read, that I have truly touched the minds of other men.
Mockingbird (1980)
I knew that there had been books in the ancient world, of course, and that most of them were probably from that time before television, but I had no idea there were that many.
Mockingbird (1980)
When literacy died, so had history.
Mockingbird (1980)
Bob seems to know almost everything; but he doesn’t know when or why people stopped reading. “Most people are too lazy,” he said. “They only want distractions.”
Mockingbird (1980)
Reading is the subtle and thorough sharing of the ideas and feelings by underhanded means. It is a gross invasion of Privacy and a direct violation of the Constitutions of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth ages. The Teaching of Reading is equally a crime against Privacy and Personhood. One to five years on each count.
Mockingbird (1980)