Guy Davenport Quotes

As a kid, I used to go to the library and take out all the art books.

It is the supreme art of the teacher to awaken joy in creative expression and knowledge.

One of the greatest gifts my brother and I received from my mother was her love of literature and language. With their boundless energy, libraries open the door to these worlds and so many others. I urge young and old alike to embrace all that libraries have to offer.

To love to read is to exchange hours of ennui for hours of delight.

Reading should not be presented to children as a chore, a duty. It should be offered as a gift.

That is a good book which is opened with expectation, and closed with delight and profit.

One of the most important things in my childhood were the new books that came in. I feel sorry for kids today who have so many other options like television that they may not value books as much as they could enjoy them.

If there are no films or plays of interest to me, I don't go. I know how to go to a museum or a library or pick up a good magazine or I can watch the sun set. I know how to live. There's a whole creation out there full of magic and wonder to be explored.

Science and fun cannot be separated.

Reading is, hands-down, my favorite activity.

I look at [books] as a child looks at cakes - with glittering eyes and a watering mouth, imagining the pleasure that awaits him.

I understood right from the start that every set of library doors were the sort of magic portals that lead to other lands. My God, right within reach there were dinosaurs and planets and presidents and girl detectives!

You must learn day by day, year by year to broaden your horizon. The more things you love, the more you are interested in, the more you enjoy, the more you are indignant about, the more you have left when anything happens.

I grew up in a small town in India, but through books I knew the world.

My parents, and librarians along the way, taught me about the space between words; about the margins, where so many juicy moments of life and spirit and friendship could be found. In a library, you could find miracles and truth and you might find something that would make you laugh so hard that you get shushed, in the friendliest way.

There is that romanticized idea of what a bookstore can be, what a library can be, what a shop can be. And to me, they are that. These are places that open doors into other worlds if only you're open to them.

Education is the foundation for all we do in life, it shapes who we are and what we aspire to be. Creativity fuels innovation, and it's what all states should strive to instill in the next generations.

Savor the mystery, Stephen, we don't get enough of them.

Games shouldn't only be fun. They should teach or spark an interest in other things.

I was the kind of kid whose parents would drop him off at the local town library on their way to work, and I'd go and work my way through the children's area.

Paris is an ideal place to become informed, while Venice is a place to think and write.

My sincere hope is that 'The Da Vinci Code,' in addition to entertaining people, will serve as an open door to begin their own explorations.

Reading is my greatest luxury.

What drove me and kept me going over the decades? If I had to use a single word, it would be 'curiosity.'

Books! I dunno if I ever told you this, but books are the greatest gift one person can give another.