Daniel Pennac Quotes

Reading is an act of resistance. Against what? Against all constraints.
Daniel Pennac
The question isn't whether I have time to read or not (time that nobody will ever give me, by the way), but whether I'll allow myself the pleasure of being a reader.
Daniel Pennac
I have never experienced a sorrow that was not relieved by an hour of reading.
Daniel Pennac
But reading is different, reading is something you do. With TV, and cinema for that matter, everything’s handed to you on a plate, nothing has to be worked at, they just spoon-feed you. The picture, the sound, the scenery, the atmospheric music in case you haven’t understood what the director’s on about… The creaking door that tells you to be stiff. You have to imagine it all when you’re reading.
Daniel Pennac
What we need to understand is that books weren't written so that young people could write essays about them, but so that they could read them if they really wanted to.Knowledge, academic track record, career, and social life are one thing. Our intimacy and cultural awareness as readers are quite another.
Daniel Pennac
Rather than allowing a book's intelligence to speak through our mouths, we replace it with our own intelligence as we talk about it. Rather than acting as emissary for the book, we become guardians of the temple, boasting of its wonders in the very words that slam shut it's doors: Reading matters! Reading matters!
Daniel Pennac
Reassured, we left their bedroom without understanding-- or wanting to admit-- that what a child learns first isn't the act but the gestures that accompany the act. And although it may also help them learn, this ostentatious show of reading is primarily intended to reassure them and please us.
Daniel Pennac
We see that that ritual of reading every evening at the end of the bed when they were so little--set time, set gestures-- was like a prayer.
Daniel Pennac
Our children start out as good readers and will remain so if the adults around them nourish their enthusiasm instead of trying to prove themselves. If we stimulate their desire to learn before making them recite out loud; if we support them in their efforts instead of trying to catch them out; if we give up whole evenings instead of trying to save time; if we make the present come alive without threatening them with the future; if we refuse to turn pleasure into a chore but nurture it instead. If we do all this, we ourselves will rediscover the pleasure of giving freely-- because all cultural apprenticeship is free.
Daniel Pennac
If reading isn't about communication, it is, in the end, about sharing. But a deferred and fiercely selective kind of sharing.
Daniel Pennac
Time to read is always time stolen. (Like time to write, for that matter, or time to love).Stolen from what?From the tyranny of living.
Daniel Pennac
We human beings build houses because we're alive, but we write books because we're mortal. We live in groups because we're sociable, but we read because we know we're alone. Reading offers a kind of companionship that takes no one's place, but that no one can replace either.
Daniel Pennac
When you buy a jacket, it’s important the pockets are big enough for a paperback!
Daniel Pennac
We keep quiet about what we read. Our enjoyment of a book remains a jealously guarded secret. Perhaps because there`s no need to talk, or because it takes time to distill what we've read before we can say anything. Silence is our guarantee of intimacy. We might have finished reading but we`re still livingthe book.
Daniel Pennac
We human beings build houses because we're alive but we write books because we're mortal. We live in groups because we're sociable but we read because we know we're alone. Reading offers a kind of companionship that takes no one's place but that no one can replace either. It offers no definitive explanation of our destiny but links us inextricably to life. Its tiny secret links remind us of how paradoxically happy we are to be alive while illuminating how tragically absurd life is.
Daniel Pennac
Reader's Bill of Rights1. The right to not read 2. The right to skip pages 3. The right to not finish 4. The right to reread 5. The right to read anything 6. The right to escapism 7. The right to read anywhere 8. The right to browse 9. The right to read out loud 10. The right to not defend your tastes
Daniel Pennac
Lei stesso", Malaussène, "lei stesso"! L'"identità", cos'è questo snobismo? Crede che siamo "noi stessi" intorno a questo tavolo? Essere "se stesso", signore, significa essere il cavallo giusto, al momento giusto, sulla casa giusta della scacchiera giusta! O la regina, o l'alfiere, o l'ultimo dei pedoni!Ma mi sento già rispondere a Julie, con un filo di voce velenosa che, appunto, non è la mia voce:-Ah, sì? Perché io non sono me stesso?
Daniel Pennac