The more I like a book, the more reluctant I am to turn the page. Lovers, even book lovers, tend to cling. No one-night stands or "reads" for them.

Either a writer doesn't want to talk about his work, or he talks about it more than you want.

If a book is really good, it deserves to be read again, and if it's great, it should be read at least three times.

We don't simply read books. We become them.

To choose a writer for a friend is like palling around with your cardiologist, who might be musing as you talk to him that you are a sinking man. A writer's love for another writer is never quite free of malice. He may enjoy discussing your failures even more than you do. He probably sees you as tragic, like his characters - or unworthy of tragedy, which is worse.

For years they have been using the role of 'sex object' as a cover while they spied out the land.

Rome was a poem pressed into service as a city.