On reading: in words and pictures

"When we read a story we inhabit it. The covers of the book are like a roof and four walls. What is to happen next will take place within the four walls of the story. And this is possible because the story's voice makes everything its own."  - John Berger

"Reading was my escape and my comfort, my consolation, my stimulant of choice: reading for the pure pleasure of it, for the beautiful stillness that surrounds you when you hear an author's words reverberating in your head."  - Paul Auster

"Read, read, read. Read everything -- trash, classics, good and bad, and see how they do it. Just like a carpenter who works as an apprentice and studies the master. Read! You'll absorb it. Then write. If it's good, you'll find out. If it's not, throw it out of the window."  - William Faulkner

"A great book should leave you with many experiences, and slightly exhausted at the end. You live several lives while reading."  - William Styron

" You think your pain and your heartbreak are unprecedented in the history of the world, but then you read. It was books that taught me that the things that tormented me most were the very things that connected me with all the people who were alive, or who had ever been alive." - James Baldwin

The art today is for Jane Dorfman and Stuart Hill, who wanted more pictures of men and boys reading. Artists are identified in the picture captions.