Welcome to the Literary Encyclopedia
"If the book we are reading does not wake us, as with a fist
hammering on our skull, why then do we read it? So that it shall
make us happy? Good God, we would also be happy if we had no books,
and such books as make us happy we could, if need be, write
ourselves.... A book must be like ... an ice-axe to break the sea
from inside us.."