T. S. Eliot, on literature:

The purpose of literature is to turn blood into ink.

- T. S. Eliot.

Steven Spielberg, on movies and stories:

The older I get, the more I look at movies as a moving miracle.

Audiences are harder to please if you're just giving them special effects ...

but they're easy to please if it's a good story.

- Steven Spielberg.

Sam Horn, on writing:

I have never met an author who was sorry he or she wrote a book.

They are only sorry they did not write it sooner.

- Sam Horn.

Victor Hugo, on books and reading:

He never went out without a book under his arm,

and he often came back with two.

- Victor Hugo.

Paulo Coelho, on writing:

I write to empty my mind and to fill my heart.

- Paulo Coelho.

Kaari Utrio, on writing:

I can't help but to write, I have an inner need for it.

If I'm not in the middle of some literary project, I'm utterly lost, unhappy and distressed.

As soon as I get started, I calm down.

- Kaari Utrio.

Mario Batali, on reading:

Reading is a key feature in the life of every single successful person I have ever met.

- Mario Batali.

Toni Morrison, on books and writing:

If there's a book you really want to read,

but it hasn't been written yet,

then you must write it.

- Toni Morrison.

Albert Einstein, on imagination:

I am enough of an artist to draw freely upon my imagination.

Imagination is more important than knowledge.

For knowledge is limited,

whereas imagination embraces the entire world,

stimulating progress,

giving birth to evolution.

- Albert Einstein.

E. L. Konigsburg, on writing:

Finish.

The difference between being a writer and being a person of talent is the discipline it takes to apply the seat of your pants to the seat of your chair and finish.

Don't talk about it.

Do it.

Finish.

- E. L. Konigsburg.

Burton Rascoe, on writers:

A writer is working when looking out the window.

- Burton Rascoe.

Nicole Krauss, on reading:

I read like an animal.

I read under the covers, I read lying in the grass, I read at the dinner table.

While other people were talking to me, I read.

- Nicole Krauss.

F. Sionil Jose, on writing:

You should live in a manner that should enable you to devote time to writing and contemplation.

As is often said, the writer is at work even when he is simply looking out the window.

- F. Sionil Jose.

On this day in movie history - Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures (2001):

Stanley Kubrick: A Life in Pictures

a documentary directed by Jan Harlan,

was released at the Berlin International Film Festival in Germany,

on February 17, 2001.
Narrated by Tom Cruise.

“Everyone pretty much acknowledges that he’s the man, and I still feel that underrates him.”

– Jack Nicholson.

Edgar Allan Poe, on imagination:

Those who dream by day are cognizant of many things that escape those who dream only at night.

- Edgar Allan Poe.

Ann Patchett, on reading:

It's always better to have too much to read than not enough.

- Ann Patchett.

Ann Patchett, on the importance of books and reading:

You can't spend your whole life in front of a screen.

- Ann Patchett.

Introvert insight:

Whatever kind of introvert you are, some people will find you 'too much' in some ways and 'not enough' in others.

- Laurie Helgoe.

There's zero correlation between being the best talker and having the best ideas.

- Susan Cain.

Blessed are those who do not fear solitude, who are not afraid of their own company, who are not always desperately looking for something to do, something to amuse themselves with, something to judge.

- Paulo Coello.

Beware of those who seek constant crowds; they are nothing alone.

- Charles Bukowski.

E. L. Doctorow, on writing:

Good writing is supposed to evoke sensation in the reader - not the fact that it is raining,

but the feeling of being rained upon.

- E. L. Doctorow.

Doris Betts, on writing:

All one needs to write a story is one feeling and four walls.

- Doris Betts.