Rome was a poem pressed into service as a city.

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

People ... have no idea what a hard job it is for two writers to be friends. Sooner or later you have to talk about each other's work.

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.

We are all tourists in history, and irony is what we win in wars.

There was a time when we expected nothing of our children but obedience, as opposed to the present, when we expect everything of them but obedience.

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.