W. H. Auden Quotes About Books

Quotes about: Books

• A real book is not one that we read, but one that reads us.

  W. H. Auden

  Real, Book, Reading

• Some books are undeservedly forgotten; none are undeservedly remembered.

  W. H. Auden

  Book, Beer, Quality

  The Dyer's Hand, and Other Essays pt. 1 (1962)

• Thank God for books as an alternative to conversation.

  W. H. Auden

  Book, Thank God, Alternatives

• One cannot review a bad book without showing off.

  W. H. Auden

  Book, Criticism, Reviews

  Dyer's Hand (1963) "Reading"

• There are good books which are only for adults. There are no good books which are only for children.

  W. H. Auden

  Children, Book, Adults

• Literary confessors are contemptible, like beggars who exhibit their sores for money, but not so contemptible as the public that buys their books.

  W. H. Auden

  Money, Book, Confession

• As readers, we remain in the nursery stage so long as we cannot distinguish between taste and judgment, so long, that is, as the only possible verdicts we can pass on a book are two: this I like; this I don't like. For an adult reader, the possible verdicts are five: I can see this is good and I like it; I can see this is good but I don't like it; I can see this is good and, though at present I don't like it, I believe that with perseverance I shall come to like it; I can see that this is trash but I like it; I can see that this is trash and I don't like it.

  W. H. Auden

  Perseverance, Book, Believe

  "A Certain World: A Commonplace Book". Book by W. H. Auden, 1970.

• Attacking bad books is not only a waste of time but also bad for the character. If I find a book really bad, the only interest I can derive from writing about it has to come from myself, from such display of intelligence, wit and malice as I can contrive. One cannot review a bad book without showing off.

  W. H. Auden

  Book, Writing, Character

• A writer, or at least a poet, is always being asked by people who should know better: “Whom do you write for?” The question is, of course, a silly one, but I can give it a silly answer. Occasionally I come across a book which I feel has been written especially for me and for me only. Like a jealous lover I don’t want anybody else to hear of it. To have a million such readers, unaware of each other’s existence, to be read with passion and never talked about, is the daydream, surely, of every author.

  W. H. Auden

  Silly, Book, Passion

• The Three Wiseman: The weather has been awful, The countryside is dreary, Marsh, jungle, rock; and echoes mock, Calling our hope unlawful; But a silly song can help along Yours ever and sincerely: At least we know for certain that we are three old sinners, that this journey is much too long, that we want our dinners, and miss our wives, our books, our dogs, but have only the vaguest idea why we are what we are. To discover how to be human now Is the reason we follow this star.

  W. H. Auden

  Dog, Song, Stars

• Be subtle, various, ornamental, clever, And do not listen to those critics ever Whose crude provincial gullets crave in books Plain cooking made still plainer by plain cooks.

  W. H. Auden

  Clever, Book, Cooking

• If the most significant characteristic of man is the complex of biological needs he shares with all members of his species, then the best lives for the writer to observe are those in which the role of natural necessity is clearest, namely, the lives of the very poor.

  W. H. Auden

  Art, Book, Men

• There's only one good test of pornography. Get twelve normal men to read the book, and then ask them, ''Did you get an erection?'' If the answer is ''Yes'' from a majority of the twelve, then the book is pornographic.

  W. H. Auden

  Book, Men, Majority

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