When friends stop being frank and useful to each other, the whole world loses some of its radiance.

The first divorce in the world may have been a tragedy, but the hundred-millionth is not necessarily one.

A book is meant not only to be read, but to haunt you, to importune you like a lover or a parent, to be in your teeth like a piece of gristle.

The more I like a book, the more slowly I read. this spontaneous talking back to a book is one of the things that makes reading so valuable.

Travel is like adultery: one is always tempted to be unfaithful to one's own country. To have imagination is inevitably to be dissatisfied with where you live. There is in men, as Peter Quennell said, "a centrifugal tendency." In our wanderlust, we are lovers looking for consummation.

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

The moment a book is lent I begin to miss it.