S. E. Hinton Quotes

When we talk about good books, we often talk about good sentences, but what we rarely talk about is reader pleasure. Yet it is reader pleasure that is going to make a book break out into the kind of success that makes it into a household name.

You're more likely to finish a book you enjoy, than one that feels like literary drudgery.

People - me included - want to get excited about books. Good books are a good thing.

Most scholarly books we read for the information or insight they contain. But some we return to simply for the pleasure of the author's company.

If a work alienates a reader, should that be counted against it? I respect people that love 'Ulysses,' for example, but I'm on the other side of the argument. 'Ulysses' would be better if it seduced me. But I probably have the minority point of view.

but for my own part, if a book is well written, I always find it too short.

Personally, I am a hedonistic reader; I have never read a book merely because it was ancient. I read books for the aesthetic emotions they offer me, and I ignore the commentaries and criticism.

Reading should be a repeat performance.

I mean, when you're tired of book reviews, you're tired of life.

I love to read things that I'm sure won't make a movie.

When I love a novel I've read, I want to reread it - in part, to see how it was constructed.

I like being able to provide consistent and frequent literary choices for my fans.

Finding people who get enormous pleasure from reading books is a more and more unusual experience, and so writers just so much want to be heard.

I love reading; I really enjoy it. I read books quite fast, which kind of annoys me, but I like it at the same time because I can read a book in a day.

The person, be it gentleman or lady, who has not pleasure in a good novel, must be intolerably stupid.

I don't reread my books.

My books are written from the heart, to entertain: they're books I would like to read. Because of that, when I meet people who like them, we have so much to talk about!

There are things I read doing research, and there are certain books and writers I just love to read. There are books of Brian Morten's that I love, for instance. There's a wonderful book by an Australian writer named Helen Garner called 'The Children's Bach,' and I just love the way she uses language in it.

My criteria for what makes a book an official 'favorite,' is based almost entirely on how desperately I don't want the story to end.

Reading is not a duty, and has consequently no business to be made disagreeable.

I didn't really like reading much before I did 'The Golden Compass'. But then my teacher told me to read it. And I thought, 'Oh God, I'm going to have to read a whole book by myself!' It's not that I couldn't read, it's just that I didn't really like books very much. But the book that she lent me I really enjoyed.

I love the fact that 'Flowers for Algernon' is doing its part to get people reading.

I know that for every reader who has lost the habit or can't find the time, there are people who've never enjoyed reading and question the value of literature, either as entertainment or education, or believe that a love of books, and of fiction in particular, is sentimental or frivolous.

The nicest notes I've received from readers are those that tell me I've gotten them back into reading for entertainment. For me, there is no greater compliment.

All prizes have a role, if they are run with integrity and with a clear focus on reading and quality writing. I don't think any of them is necessary, but they all play an incredibly important role in building a body of literature, in introducing new authors to new readers, and extending reading.