Michael Dirda Quotes

The marketability, the success of a book, ultimately rests with whether or not people will find the concept/characters/title/cover appealing.

Even the most careful and expensive marketing plans cannot sell people a book they don't want to read.

Read the book you do honestly feel a wish and curiosity to read.

I loved 'Weekend,' and it meant a lot to me when I saw it in the movie theater. I think 'Looking' feels more like that movie than any of those other shows, with a little more comedy thrown in than 'Weekend.' But it's certainly got the vibe and look and feeling of that movie.

The reason why books endure is because there are enough people who like them. It's the only reason why books last.

Reading time is precious. Don't waste it. Reading bad books, or books that are wrong for a certain time in your life, can dangerously turn you off the activity altogether.

I read a lot about her. I read a lot of bios. I read bios about the royal family; I read this little novella called 'The Uncommon Reader,' which is a fiction: it's about Queen Elizabeth going on this library bus and choosing books and reading them, but it's so sweet.

I have boys, and boys are particularly resistant to reading books. I had some success recently with Sherman Alexie's great young adult novel 'The Absolutely True Diary Of A Part-Time Indian.' I told my son it was highly inappropriate for him and one of the most banned books in America. That got his attention, and he raced through it.

If it's not gripping you, you are reading the wrong book.

I always thought that I had a pretty diverse body of work, I mean, as far as subject matter. Teenage rock and roll movie; romance; '20s Western. On paper it looks different, but then there's similarities in the vibe of them.

Paul just had a way about him that was different. I was really attracted to his writing.

No one knows why books do well.

There's so much published by so many different publishers. Most of the time, I don't have to confront that, but walking into a conference center filled with books - and people buying them or not buying them, being interested or not interested in them - that's just overwhelming to me now.

Many a trivial novel has been written about an important subject, and many a profound one about nothing in particular.

If a reader likes a particular author, they keep reading all his books, and if the supply is not kept up, then the reader shifts his loyalties.

A large part of the appeal of this novel when I was lucky enough to stumble across the story idea for 'A Head Full of Ghosts' was that I'd finally be writing a horror novel. In a lot of ways, the book is both my criticism of and love letter to horror.

It's hard for me to find people to paint. There has got to be something about them that only I can see.

Watching something is a personal experience, and I think watching something that is dealing with a heavy subject matter, it's a personal thing.

I always have at least one book with me. I try and read a book a month.

My way of finding a book is to go on Emma Roberts' reading list.

I grew up as an avid reader. I would go to the library and check out 40 books a week. Some of them were smarty books; most of them were 'Sweet Valley High' and young teen romance.

Reading is sexy!

I have more of a relationship with the subject than I do with my camera equipment. To me, camera equipment is like a tin of shoe polish and a brush - I use that as a tool, but my basic camera is my emotion and my eyes. It's not anything to do with the wonderful cameras I use.

I'm mostly into buying art from friends. I like to keep it vague - just whatever I find intriguing.

There are books all around me... I don't read as much as I used to, but I always have a book or two going.