Garrison Keillor read several of my poems on 'The Writer's Almanac' and I've heard from listeners nationally and internationally. That's one of the great gifts of email.
A great value of antiquity lies in the fact that its writings are the only ones that modern men still read with exactness.
I like to read and dream and create music that is based on the imagery of text. If you have the combination of a great book and a great filmmaker, what could be better for the composer?
When you read a great book, you don't escape from life, you plunge deeper into it.
I met Barack Obama, I read his book, I like him a great deal. I disagree with him on very fundamental issues.
I know America's great not because I read about it in a book but because I've seen it with my own eyes.
Most of the great books on prayer are written by 'experts' - monks, missionaries, mystics, saints. I've read scores of them, and mainly they make me feel guilty.
Canada has always been a great place for literature. It's strong and growing stronger, and there will always be reading, and there will always be great writers.
There's always an anxiety about playing literary characters because one of the great joys of reading books is that you can create your own vision of things.
I must confess that I'm not a great reader. At the moment I'm reading my son's 'Stig of the Dump' by Clive King and I've got a plant catalogue on the go.
Seek the lofty by reading, hearing and seeing great work at some moment every day.
One good thing about leaving daily journalism was that I was no longer obliged to read all the book prize short lists.
Life has changed enormously, and I hope - I hope more people read good things.
I don't like to read reviews. Even the good ones you start to analyze: 'Oh, did I do that? I have to make sure I do that again.'
Children will not pretend to be enjoying books, and they will not read books because they have been told that these books are good. They are looking for delight.
I'm not a trained singer at all. I've auditioned on occasion for proper musical theatre-type stuff, but I can't read music, and I wasn't particularly good at it.
I had no ambition to be a writer because the books I read were too good, my standards were too high.
I am not opposed to e-readers. Any technology that encourages the reading of literature is a good thing.
Any reading not of a vicious species must be a good substitute for the amusements too apt to fill up the leisure of the labouring classes.
I couldn't tell you a good, bad or ugly pilot just from reading it, but I can tell you a character I want to play.
I'm a good scholar when it comes to reading but a blotting kind of writer when you give me a pen.
