National Author's Day: What The Occasion Is About, And Quotes For The Great Minds

National Author's Day falls on Nov. 1 to honor the great minds that have shaped our literary universe. Every country in this world boasts of its literature that's rooted in its cultural past and mirrors the lifestyle and hardships, and sometimes the colonial past of its indigenous people.

Emerging from small pockets on various sub-continents, literature converges on the world stage to become a unified whole, earning the creators their due credit for penning down masterpieces revered through generations. While literature is an integral part of any society, authors are the influential figures that the world looks up to.

The world of literature is enriched with diverse genres ranging from fiction to dark comedy, and every book nerd will have their own personal favorite that deeply resonates with them. National Author's Day, the occasion which shows gratitude to every wordsmith out there, also makes it a point for every person nurtures their reading habit to attain the endless wisdom books offer.

The Day was first observed in 1928 by Nellie Verne Burth McPherson, the then president of the Bement, Illinois Women's Club as a way of appreciation for her favorite author, Irvin Bacheller, who generously replied to her fan letter with an autographed copy of one of his books. Since then, National Author's Day has been observed to pay homage to every author who we can't thank enough for provoking our thoughts and feeding our intellects with their legendary craftsmanship.

Here are some quotes about authors that seem like a perfect read on this day: (Courtesy: Goodreads)

• "What really knocks me out is a book that, when you're all done reading it, you wish the author that wrote it was a terrific friend of yours and you could call him up on the phone whenever you felt like it. That doesn't happen much, though."- J.D. Salinger
• "A story is a letter that the author writes to himself, to tell himself things that he would be unable to discover otherwise."- Carlos Ruiz Zafón
• "What is your advice to young writers?" "Drink, f**k and smoke plenty of cigarettes."- Charles Bukowski
• "There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal."- Toni Morrison
• "Quiet people have the loudest minds."- Stephen King