Read much, but not many books. — Gustave Flaubert

One must be an inventor to read well. There is then creative reading as well as creative writing. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
Each age, it is found, must write its own books; or rather, each generation for the next succeeding. — Ralph Waldo Emerson
I can tell you, honest friend, what to believe: believe life; it teaches better that book or orator. — Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
The author, in his work, must be like God in the Universe, present everywhere and visible nowhere. — Gustave Flaubert
One mustn't ask apple trees for oranges, France for sun, women for love, life for happiness. — Gustave Flaubert
Style is as much under the words as in the words. It is as much the soul as it is the flesh of a work. — Gustave Flaubert