The calendar for the month of April has one of the most beautiful dates that exist: April 23 is celebratednot only in Spain, the Day of the book. Historically this date was chosen because it was believed that it coincided with the date of death of three great writers, William Shakespeare, Miguel de Cervantes and Inca Garcilaso de la Vega. But the truth is that neither of the first two died on April 23. It doesn’t matter, because that hasn’t stopped him from International Book Day has been consolidated at all levels in more than half of the planet.

At an international level it has been celebrated for more than 30 years, in order to promote culture, reading and defend intellectual property. To honor this day, we collect 10 phrases from 10 important writers, actresses and relevant women about the importance of books:

  • Books are the mirror of the soul —Virginia Woolf

The truth is that although this quote is from Virginia Woolf, many others have made similar statements. Among them is the Argentine writer Jorge Luis Borgeswith the date: “Books are like mirrors, they only show what you already have inside.“. With this phrase, Borges intended to highlight how what we read becomes a means to delve deeper into our emotions, the mirror that we can use to understand our deepest self.

  • Every time you read a good book, somewhere in the world a door opens and lets in more light. —Vera Nazarian

Maybe it had to be a science fiction writer who had to pronounce a phrase so profound, so fantastic and so real.

  • Books are the plane, the train and the road. They are the destination and the journey. They are home —Anna Quindlen

This phrase, from the American journalist and writer Anna Quindlen, is the maximum expression of love for books and reading in a perfect literary description. Jane Austen has another of the best expressions to refer to the love of reading, recognizing that “there is no pleasure” like that of reading. “How quickly one tires of anything that is not a book! When I have my own house, I will be miserable if I do not have an excellent library.”

  • I think books are like people, in the sense that they will appear in your life when you need them most. —Emma Thomson

This is not even remotely a quote from a writer. Oprah Winfrey asked the actress Emma Thompson, an avid reader, to make a list of her seven favorite books. Difficult experience. Of course, she was able to pronounce this very forceful phrase, with her real story behind it: after the death of her father, a novel by Gabriel García Márquez claims that she saved her life. One hundred years of loneliness. “Thanks to that experience I firmly believe that there are books whose greatness really allows you to live.”

  • Reading is evasion and the opposite of evasion —Nora Ephron

With this contradictory statement, the American journalist and producer Nora Ephron—author of the script for When Harry Met Sally— defines reading as “a form of contact reality after a day inventing things” and, at the same time, a way to “contact another person’s imagination after a day that was too real.”

  • Read until the words become your friends —Karen Witemeyer

Karen Witemeyer is an American psychologist and writer, author of numerous bestsellers in the United States that always revolve around her religion, Christianity. But she advocates reading everything, anything. “Read. Everything you can get,” she says. “Read until the words become your friends. Then, when you need to find one, they will jump to your head and wave their hands to be the one. And you can select whatever you want, like a captain choosing his stickball team.” .

  • Books can be dangerous. The best ones should have a label that says: ‘It could change your life’ —Helen Exley

The first book Exley wrote is more than 30 years old and continues to sell all over the world: a picture book written by children for their grandparents. Grandfathers and grandmothers. His books focus on love, pain or joy, feelings, in general, and he also has some self-help books. But for Exley, the books themselves can provide help. Cassandra Clare expressed herself in the same sense in her youth novel Mechanic angel: “You always have to be careful with books,” said Tessa, “and what’s inside them. Because “words have the power to change us.”

  • Pens and pens are the most powerful weapons —Malala Yousafzai

Before the United Nations, on July 12, 2013, the young Malala gave one of her most emotional speeches. And it was in him that she spoke these words. “We realize the importance of our voice when we are silenced. Similarly, when we were in Swat (Pakistan), we realized the importance of pens and books when we saw the weapons (…). Extremists They are afraid of them.” In her words, a fierce attempt to fight illiteracy, poverty and terrorism: “A child, a teacher, a book and a pen can change the world. Education is the only solution“.

  • He read books as if he were breathing air, to fill himself and live —Annie Dillard

Winner of a Pulitzer Prize for her book Pilgrim at Tinker Creek (1974) and with several books included in the lists of the best in history in different sectors, Dillard leaves in this short sentence a reflection that for many readers is true. Life, without books, cannot exist.

  • lReading is the only means by which we slip, involuntarily, often helplessly, into another person’s skin, into another person’s voice, into another person’s soul. —Joyce Carol Oates

The phrase from the American playwright, poet and short story writer closes this ranking of phrases that, in addition to trying to encourage reading, shows what any reading lover is already clear about. That reading is living.