Carl Sagan on Books
May
14
2026
“What an astonishing thing a book is. It’s a flat object made from a tree with flexible parts on which are imprinted lots of funny dark squiggles. But one glance at it and you’re inside the mind of another person, maybe somebody dead for thousands of years. Across the millennia, an author is speaking clearly and silently inside your head, directly to you. Writing is perhaps the greatest of human inventions, binding together people who never knew each other, citizens of distant epochs. Books break the shackles of time. A book is proof that human beings are capable of working magic.”
~ Carl Sagan, 1934 – 1996
What at astonishingly wonderful quote this is, particularly for those like me who love writing and books, and the history of ideas and events, individual lives and societies. It also frames writing in a way that suggests it matters, which naturally gratifies me as a author. As for “books break the shackles of time” — what a killer line!
