The longest night of the year is almost here. Why do many book lovers agree winter is the best season to read? Because what better way to spend winter than curled up with a hot drink, a warm blanket, a raging fire, and a big book? To celebrate the season, here are 14 of the best literary quotes about winter.

1. “What good is the warmth of summer, without the cold of winter to give it sweetness.”―John Steinbeck, Travels with Charley: In Search of America

2. “Melancholy were the sounds on a winter’s night.”―Virginia Woolf, Jacob’s Room

3. “If we had no winter, the spring would not be so pleasant: if we did not sometimes taste of adversity, prosperity would not be so welcome.”―Anne Bradstreet, The Works of Anne Bradstreet

4. “If winter comes, can spring be far behind?”―Percy Bysshe Shelley, Ode to the West Wind

5. “In the winter she curls up around a good book and dreams away the cold.”―Ben Aaronovitch, Broken Homes

6. “I read, much of the night, and go south in the winter.”―T.S. Eliot

7. “Winter is not a season, it’s an occupation.”―Sinclair Lewis

8. “Winter is nature’s way of saying, “Up yours.”―Robert Byrne

9. “Winter changes into stone the water of heaven and the heart of man.”―Victor Hugo

10. “Nothing burns like the cold.”―George R.R. Martin, A Game of Thrones

11. “The snow doesn’t give a soft white damn whom it touches.”—e.e. cummings

12. “Well, I know now. I know a little more how much a simple thing like a snowfall can mean to a person.”―Sylvia Plath, The Unabridged Journals of Sylvia Plath

13. “A snowball in the face is surely the perfect beginning to a lasting friendship.”―Markus Zusak, The Book Thief

14. “When you come out of the storm, you won’t be the same person who walked in. That’s what this storm’s all about.”―Haruki Murakami, Kafka on the Shore

Related: 10 Reasons Why Winter Is The Best Season To Read