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

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.

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.

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

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.

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

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