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

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.

There are few things more subtly distressing than an inappropriate gift from someone close to you.

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.

In novels, I said, people are transfigured by love. They’re elevated, made different, lifted out of their ordinariness…It’s not so much to ask, I said. I just want love to live up to its publicity.

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.

Paranoids are the only ones who notice things anymore.