"I write mainly for artists, fellow-artists and follow-artists. However, I could never explain adequately to certain students in my literature classes, the aspect of good reading -- the fact that you read an artist's book not with your heart (the heart is a remarkably stupid reader), and not with your brain alone, but with your brain and spine. 'Ladies and gentlemen, the tingle in the spine really tells you what the author felt and wished you to feel.'" (SO, p. 41)
「我寫作的對象主要是藝術家，同輩藝術家與後輩藝術家。然而，我始終無法為我文學課班上的某些學生妥切說明正確閱讀的形貌——也就是在閱讀一本藝術家的書時，不能用心（心是個蠢笨無比的讀者），也不能光用腦，而得腦子與脊椎並用。『諸位女士先生，脊椎中的酥癢，才真正告訴你們作者感到，也希望你們感到的東西。』」
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"[A creative artist]...clashes with readerdom because he is his own ideal reader and those other readers are so very often mere lip-moving ghosts and amnesiacs. On the other hand, a good reader is bound to make fierce efforts when wrestling with a difficult author, but those efforts can be most rewarding after the bright dust has settled." (SO, p. 183)
「〔一個有創意的藝術家〕……會與讀者大眾發生衝突，因為唯有他才是自己最理想的讀者，其它讀者則多半只是光動嘴唇的行屍走肉。反之，一個好的讀者，定會竭盡所能與一個刁鑽的作者角力，而待那些閃亮的塵埃落定，他的這番氣力也必將獲得報償。」
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【摘自《Strong Opinions》】
錢鍾書先生在評曹葆華《落日頌》詩集的文中提到可讀性：「粗淺地說：文學作品與非文學作品有一個分別：非文學作品只求readable ——能讀，文學作品須求re-readable。re-readable有兩層意義。一種是耐讀：『咿唔不厭巡檐讀，屈曲還憑臥被思』……」，而另一種意思便是「重新讀」（見《新月月刊》第四卷第六期，1933年3月1日）。文學理論家Harold Bloom宣稱VN的《Lolita》是本「為了讓人一讀再讀而寫的書」（"a book written to be reread"）（見Bloom所編之 《Vladimir Nabokov's "Lolita"》，New York：Chelsea House，1987，p. 1），而錢氏的《圍城》亦正是如此。
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