Maryanne Wolf Quotes

Reading is an active, imaginative act; it takes work.

In fourth grade, I learned that reading was serious business, not just a pleasant way to pass the time, and that like medicine or engineering, it had a definite, valuable purpose: to foster 'comprehension.'

The answers you get from literature depend on the questions you pose.

We hear only those questions for which we are in a position to find answers

To know is not too demanding: it merely requires memory and time. But to understand is quite a different matter: it requires intellectual ability and training, a self conscious awareness of what one is doing, experience in techniques of analysis and synthesis, and above all, perspective.

Reading enables us to see with the keenest eyes, to hear with the finest ears, and listen to the sweetest voices of all time.

It's good to know how to read, but it's dangerous to know how to read and not how to interpret what you're reading.

I think I learned a lot from reading in general - even from reading badly written books.

The main part of intellectual education is not the acquisition of facts, but learning how to make facts live.

The writer studies literature, not the world. He is careful of what he reads, for that is what he will write.

The whole purpose of education is to turn mirrors into windows.

A classical work doesn't ever have to be understood entirely. But those who are educated and who are still educating themselves must desire to learn more and more from it.

If you would judge, understand.

I don't think there's anything wrong with someone having to read a poem twice. Or even a book.

Judgment is contained in the act of trying to understand.

I can't talk about anything or write about anything if I don't understand it. So a lot of the stuff that I go through and a lot of the time that I spend is understanding.

Reading a book is like re-writing it for yourself. You bring to a novel, anything you read, all your experience of the world. You bring your history and you read it in your own terms.

One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well.

I do believe that reading can help you understand what you're writing and see what others are doing. But sometimes the desire for more information can act as an inhibitor.

I'm not well-read, but when I read, I read well.

Until you understand a writer's ignorance, presume yourself ignorant of his understanding.

A man hears only what he understands.

I read all the time, and I'm often struck by something I'm reading.

I do think observing is important in learning.

Be sure that you go to the author to get at his meaning, not to find yours.