Grothendieck (the mathematician) was at some point giving lessons at a place which had no library. Someone pointed out that there were not many books to read there, so he replied: "Here, we don't read books, we write them."
I've not heard that quote before, but I'm going to guess it was more an apology for the poor state of the library than a serious suggestion about how to achieve what Grothendieck achieved.
I never thought it could be an apology (it's kind of a material detail, they could still find books elsewhere), but rather a mix of sincerity (at least regarding his creativity), stimulation and joking.
