Natalie Goldberg Quotes

We don't want bookstores to die. Authors need them, and so do neighborhoods.

I think of my own work as part of a decades-long conversation about books and reading with people I will mainly never meet.

There are some writers I think who love to go around and visit bookstores and just interact.

I am a big advocate of the role of the bookstore in the community.

I don't want to stand with somebody's praise. Whereas now when people come up to me, they say, "I love the bookstore" and "Kids! Come here, come here! This is the woman who owns the bookstore." That's incredible. I can say to that, "Thank you for shopping local. Thank you for coming in. What are you reading? Let's talk about books." It's about something I'm doing as opposed to somehow something I am. I feel comfortable and positive in that role. Because it's about reading. It's about books. It's about learning. It's about business and tax base.

The fact that people go to Portland to visit a tiny feminist bookstore-no matter what the impetus is for them getting there-the fact that they go in there and look around and shop for books or stationery or whatever, is a major source of pride for me.

So Matilda’s strong young mind continued to grow, nurtured by the voices of all those authors who had sent their books out into the world like ships on the sea. These books gave Matilda a hopeful and comforting message: You are not alone.

Ah, how good it is to be among people who are reading!

When I moved back to Cumbria, one of the first things I did was locate a decent bookshop.

But I was, and still am, an avid reader and so when I first started I chose to photograph many of the great writers in this country to try and earn a living.

I wanted to go to Portland because it's a really good book town.

It's great people still care about books, and it's great you can still fashion a life from literature.

Any independent bookstore that has managed to survive is the best place to do a reading.

When I go to places and do book tours, I don't really like doing traditional bookshops. It's nice to walk people through something instead of just standing up in a bookstore.

I think, oh my god, kids are reading, and they care about a book enough to come over and talk to me about a book that they care about. If I think about it as being a celebrity, it would freak me out. But I just think, lucky me, that I get to be a part of this whole thing.

Avid readers are enchanted by meaning, which is available chiefly in books.

There is no shortage of wonderful writers. What we lack is a dependable mass of readers.

So, please, oh please, we beg, we pray, go throw your TV set away, and in its place you can install, a lovely bookcase on the wall.

Bookstores, like libraries, are the physical manifestation of the wide world's longest, most thrilling conversation.

The first thing I do in any town I come to is ask if it has a bookstore.

A house without books is like a room without windows.

That's what this country needs -- more books!

What I say is, a town isn't a town without a bookstore. It may call itself a town, but unless it's got a bookstore it knows it's not fooling a soul.

Writers do not come out of houses without books.

Who wants to be used? I love to read, so books are my main friends. They're always available, always friendly, and always interesting, and they never make me choose sides.