Quotes from Mockingbird

Walter Tevis ·  288 pages

Rating: (4K votes)


“I feel free and strong. If I were not a reader of books I could not feel this way. Whatever may happen to me, thank God that I can read, that I have truly touched the minds of other men.”
― Walter Tevis, quote from Mockingbird


“Reading is too intimate,' Spofforth said. 'It will put you too close to the feelings and ideas of others. It will disturb and confuse you.”
― Walter Tevis, quote from Mockingbird


“Reading is the subtle and thorough sharing of the ideas and feelings by underhanded means. It is a gross invasion of Privacy and a direct violation of the Constitutions of the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Age. The Teaching of Reading is equally a crime against Privacy and Personhood. One to five years on each count.”
― Walter Tevis, quote from Mockingbird


“It all began, I suppose, with learning to build fires—to warm the cave and keep the predators out. And it ended with time-release Valium.”
― Walter Tevis, quote from Mockingbird


“I am human. I talk and I listen and I read.”
― Walter Tevis, quote from Mockingbird



“When literacy died, so had history.”
― Walter Tevis, quote from Mockingbird


“New York is nearly a grave. The Empire State Building is its gravestone.”
― Walter Tevis, quote from Mockingbird


“If I cannot read and learn and have things that are worth thinking about, I would rather immolate myself than go on living. Synthetic”
― Walter Tevis, quote from Mockingbird


“They were willing to accept their stringent piety, and silence, and sexual restraints, all unthinkingly, along with a few platitudes about Jesus and Moses and Noah; they were overwhelmed, however, at the effort it would require to understand the literature that was the real source of their religion. I”
― Walter Tevis, quote from Mockingbird


“The Age of Technology has rusted.”
― Walter Tevis, quote from Mockingbird



“It feels terrible. Being in love feels terrible. I”
― Walter Tevis, quote from Mockingbird


About the author

Walter Tevis
Born place: in San Francisco, The United States
Born date February 28, 1928
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BookQuoters is a community of passionate readers who enjoy sharing the most meaningful, memorable and interesting quotes from great books. As the world communicates more and more via texts, memes and sound bytes, short but profound quotes from books have become more relevant and important. For some of us a quote becomes a mantra, a goal or a philosophy by which we live. For all of us, quotes are a great way to remember a book and to carry with us the author’s best ideas.

We thoughtfully gather quotes from our favorite books, both classic and current, and choose the ones that are most thought-provoking. Each quote represents a book that is interesting, well written and has potential to enhance the reader’s life. We also accept submissions from our visitors and will select the quotes we feel are most appealing to the BookQuoters community.

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