25 best quotes comparing books and movies

What do the world’s greatest minds think about the relation between the book and its adaptation? Check out the quotes below.

Every year, a few books get new life thanks to their movie adaptations. And every time the next book is adapted to the big screen, we witness a heated discussion about what is better: the book or its adaptation.

We should not compare these two worlds. They are governed by different rules and aimed at reaching different goals. Many of the quotes presented below prove the comparison is pointless and leads nowhere.

Comparing a book to a movie is like comparing glasses to a mirror. The same ingredient doesn’t make them similar.

On the other hand, it’s good to keep in mind all the advantages of a book adaptation. The movie restores interest in the book and its author. It can increase or create an awareness of the book, making many people reach for it for the first time. It helps discover new meanings and a new context.

The more people talk, the better. For the movie or the book. Obviously, it doesn’t apply to a bad movie adaptation (a bad movie or a missed adaptation), or a bad book.

One of the best book-vs-movie quotes comes from J.W. Eagan (by the way, do you know who this person is?). “Never judge a book by its movie” is brilliant, because it encourages to form two different opinions: one about the book and the other about the movie.

Is this list missing a quote? Share your suggestions in the comments below.

Books vs. movies – 25 best quotes

1

Books and movies are like apples and oranges. They both are fruit, but taste completely different.

–Stephen King

2

Having your book turned into a movie is like seeing your oxen turned into bouillon cubes.

–John le Carre

3

Artists use frauds to make human beings seem more wonderful than they really are. Dancers show us human beings who move much more gracefully than human beings really move. Films and books and plays show us people talking much more entertainingly than people really talk, make paltry human enterprises seem important. Singers and musicians show us human beings making sounds far more lovely than human beings really make. Architects give us temples in which something marvelous is obviously going on. Actually, practically nothing is going on

–Kurt Vonnegut

4

I’m all for whatever transitions the book properly to a movie.

–Gillian Flynn

5

I’m not from the movie world. I’m from the book world.

–Daniel Woodrell

6

If you truly love film, I think the healthiest thing to do is not read books on the subject. I prefer the glossy film magazines with their big color photos and gossip columns, or the National Enquirer. Such vulgarity is healthy and safe.

–Werner Herzog

7

There are things in the book you could never do in a movie.

–Noah Hathaway

8

The summer movies are coming out. My advice: just stay home and burn a good book.

–Stephen Colbert

9

I have three kids who like Harry Potter so I was sort of aware of it. You can’t really move from it: it’s on buses, in stores, it’s everywhere. One of my kids has read the books; the other two are too small but they like the movies.

–Gary Oldman

10

I wanted to write and direct movies and not be forced to adapt them from a bestselling book.

–Francis Ford Coppola

11

What makes a good book and what makes a good movie are totally different things.

–Seth Grahame-Smith

12

I enjoy about 1 out of 100 movies, it’s about the same proportion to books published that I care to read.

–Jim Harrison

13

I love the movies, and when I go to see a movie that’s been made from one of my books, I know that it isn’t going to be exactly like my novel because a lot of other people have interpreted it. But I also know it has an idea that I’ll like because that idea occurred to me, and I spent a year, or a year and a half of my life working on it.

–Stephen King

14

As an author, you can’t expect a movie to be an illustration of the book. If that’s what you hope for, you shouldn’t sell the rights.

–Bernhard Schlink

15

I’ve had nine of my books adapted to film, and almost all were enjoyable. I’ve been very lucky with Hollywood, and look forward to more movies being adapted. But I don’t get involved in that process. I know nothing about making movies and I stay away from it and hope for the best.

–John Grisham

16

When you’re making a movie of a book, people are always waiting with their knives.

–Joel Edgerton

17

I couldn’t be happier about being a part of ‘Hunger Games’ and to play Katniss. I have a huge responsibility to the fans of this incredible book and I don’t take it lightly. I will give everything I have to these movies and to this role to make it worthy of Suzanne Collins’ masterpiece.

–Jennifer Lawrence

18

The book is a film that takes place in the mind of the reader. That’s why we go to movies and say, “Oh, the book is better.”

–Paulo Coelho

19

We want a book to be a book. We’ll have all the interactive bells and whistles but our intent is to engage young people in reading, not to show them a movie.

–LeVar Burton

20

Movies are not scripts – movies are films; they’re not books, they’re not the theatre.

–Nicolas Roeg

21

I’m obsessed with zombies. I like watching zombie movies and I read zombie books.

–Kevin Bacon

22

OK, publishing a book and releasing a movie is all very well, but Tottenham beating Man. U. 3-2… priceless.

–Salman Rushdie

23

I really believe that the movie will never be as good as the book, both because the book goes on longer – a movie is basically an abridgment of a book – and because books are internal. But they are incredibly powerful. The visual format is, you know, amazing.

–Scott Turow

24

It’s such a complicated thing to put a movie together. The book world is so much simpler.

–Arthur Slade

25

I’m always frustrated when somebody makes a movie out of a book and they leave the book behind, or the heart of it.

–Sean Penn

Sources of quotes: Brainy Quotes, Goodreads.

Books vs. movies – infographic

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