The Novel Cure Quotes

“One sheds one’s sicknesses in books — repeats and presents again one’s emotions, to be master of them.’ DH Lawrence (The Letters of DH Lawrence)”
― Ella Berthoud, The Novel Cure: An A to Z of Literary Remedies

“Our medicines are not something you'll find at the drugstore, but at the bookshop, in the library, or downloaded onto your electronic reading device. We are bibliotherapists, and the tools of our trade are books. Our apothecary contains Balzacian balms and Tolstoyan tourniquets, the salves of Saramago and the purges of Perec and Proust.”
― Ella Berthoud & Susan Elderkin, The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You

“In many ways sci-fi is a natural progression from the magical worlds we inhabited as children. Speculative fiction opens up parallel universes to which we can escape and exercise our love for all things beyond our ken. close off these speculative worlds at your peril.”
― Ella Berthoud, The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You

“The revisiting of an especially admired or loved book can become, perhaps, a five-year ritual, marking the passage of time in your life, helping you to see how you have changed, and how you have remained the same. Do not go always rushing after the new. Like the best friendships and wine, the best novels get better over the years.”
― Ella Berthoud & Susan Elderkin, The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You

“bib•lio•ther•a•py noun \ bi-ble-e- ‘ther-3-pe, -’the-re-py: the prescribing of fiction for life’s ailments (Berthoud and Elderkin, 2013)”
― Ella Berthoud, The Novel Cure: An A to Z of Literary Remedies

“Books offer us the lives of a thousand others besides ourselves—and as we read we can live these lives vicariously, seeing what they see, feeling what they feel, smelling what they smell. You could argue that living without books is to live only one limited life, but with books we can live forever.”
― Ella Berthoud, The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You

“p. 559 : "Mondo piccolo, Don Camillo", Giovanni Guareschi”
― Susan Elderkin, The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You

“The Remains of the Day KAZUO ISHIGURO”
― Ella Berthoud, The Novel Cure: An A to Z of Literary Remedies

“las obras de ficción ofrecen la mejor biblioterapia, además de la más pura, está basada en nuestra propia experiencia con nuestros pacientes y reforzada por una enorme cantidad de”
― Ella Berthoud, Manual de remedios literarios: Cómo curarnos con libros (El Ojo del Tiempo nº 98)

“THE TEN BEST NOVELS TO READ ON YOUR GAP YEAR”
― Ella Berthoud, The Novel Cure: An A to Z of Literary Remedies

“lovers of literature have been using novels as salves – either consciously or subconsciously – for centuries.”
― Ella Berthoud, The Novel Cure: An A to Z of Literary Remedies

“Don’t let yourself be blown to perdition by currents of whimsical desire. The pleasure to be found in aesthetic heights will last forever; your mortal crush will not.”
― Ella Berthoud, The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You

“Physical exhaustion can be a fantastic feeling, if brought on by arduous exercise—swimming in a lake, scaling a peak, galloping on a horse along a beach. But when brought on by standing on your feet for ten hours, plucking chickens, or digging a ditch in the rain, there’s little pleasure in the pain.”
― Ella Berthoud, The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You

“If your body is loose, and you submit to what will be, you won’t hurt yourself when you fall.”
― Ella Berthoud, The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You

“In serious cases of depression, bibliotherapy is very unlikely to be enough. But we urge sufferers to make full and imaginative use of fiction as an accompaniment to medical treatment. Whether you require a novel to take you out of your funk or one that joins you in it, novels can often reach sufferers in a way that little else can, offering solace and companionship in a time of desperate need.”
― Ella Berthoud, The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You

“Kundera divides people into two camps: those who understand that life is meaningless, and therefore skim its surface, living in and for the moment; and those who cannot bear the idea that existence should come and go without meaning, and insist on reading significance into everything.”
― Ella Berthoud, The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You

“novels have the power to transport you into another existence, and see the world from a different point of view.”
― Ella Berthoud, The Novel Cure: An A to Z of Literary Remedies

“Whatever your ailment, our prescriptions are simple: a novel (or two), to be read at regular intervals. Some treatments will lead to a complete cure. Others will simply offer solace, showing you that you are not alone.”
― Ella Berthoud, The Novel Cure: An A to Z of Literary Remedies

“It’s tempting to see books the way we see gadgets: that we need the very latest, most up-to-date version. But just because a novel is new doesn’t mean it’s any good; indeed, with a new novel being published every three minutes,* the chances that it’s good are actually rather low. Far better to wait and see if a novel stands the test of time, and in the meantime read one that’s already proved itself to be worth reading. Because the art of rereading is a neglected one, and arguably even more important than the act of reading the first time around.”
― Ella Berthoud & Susan Elderkin, The Novel Cure: From Abandonment to Zestlessness: 751 Books to Cure What Ails You